They will have missed this cycle of admissions, and not all students have the luxury of taking a gap year. The students have also missed a term of tuition, and so have probably not covered the course material necessary to pass or do well in autumn.

Children/adults in care (people without families that can support them) might not be eligible for support for another year, and will often be expected to go out and work to support themselves. Poor families often rely on the extra financial support that ends with "finishing" education.

There are a lot of stories out there of children/young adults in exactly this situtation that should be off to skilled work training or university that might end up having their entire education wrecked over this despite being able academically. And this is all with the context that private school students often have not been subject to any "standardisation" process due to their small class sizes, or have had their awards upgraded above predicted grades.

We just need to give this year a free pass in much the same way as workers have been given a free pass with the furlough scheme. We can live with one year of inflated results.

Its a particularly bad time for students not being able to take a gap year as well - traveling is pretty much of the cards for those who would have otherwise have done that, and for those who would have spent the year working they're being thrown into that amongst the highest unemployment rates in decades, and up against people who have extensive experience doing the sort of jobs they'd be applying for.

That’s too late for university admissions this cycle, and next year’s Oxbridge admissions cycle will be a nightmare given the large number of reapplicants. It’d have been necessary to use the time saved in not having to mark exams to run the algorithm early.