Last night only 28,000 university places were still available for this autumn but 115,000 students were eligible to enter the clearing process. Some universities are prepared to fill the places with students who have gained "U" grades at A-level.Mrs Shephard said applicants must be told they had to meet rigorous standards to then embark on a three-year degree. Ministers have ordered an inquiry amid fears that standards could be eroded if low-achievers are allowed on to degree courses.Almost 3 per cent of the 270,000 students who go into higher education each year now go on these one-year courses, according to the Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Shephard. They were aged 10 years and six months at the time of the offence.. FRAN ABRAMS Education Correspondent Seven thousand students are admitted to university each year through foundation courses which do not always require them to have A-levels, it was revealed last night. "I told the children to keep away because it was dangerous, but there is nothing else for kids to do - only a small park with just one swing," one woman said.t Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, convicted in 1993 of the murder of James Bulger, aged two, were the youngest defendants to stand trial for murder this century. I didn't report it because the authorities don't take any notice," he said.Some residents claim the first complaints about objects thrown from the roof began three weeks ago.

I've not seen children playing up there, but I have occasionally seen things flying off the roof. There is little graffiti on the walls and no evidence of widespread vandalism.Residents yesterday deplored the lack of a playground for a council estate where 400 children live. Some elderly residents claimed that Kirkstall was deteriorating, but younger tenants said the area was free of the drugs and crime present on other estates.Derek Green, 35, an unemployed former soldier, said he was happy to have been housed in Grayson Heights "I've met a lot of very nice, friendly people I quite like to go up to the roof I do a lot of Tai Chi training up there. There has been a mixed reaction - shock, disbelief, and anger."The Kirkstall estate is not counted by the city council among the most turbulent communities in Leeds and Grayson Heights is one of a pair of 12-storey tower blocks surrounded by maisonettes.

Punctured aerosol cans were thrown and children dared each other to swing from a plank laid across the 15ft gap between the block's two wings.Detective Chief Inspector Bob Browell said yesterday: "Residents in the area are being helpful towards us. Two other boys aged 10 and nine who were also arrested have been released without charge.Residents yesterday described how the roof and upper floors of Grayson Heights, in Kirkstall, Leeds, became a perilous playground. That has been unfair and demoralising and has undermined the hard work of students and teachers," he said.. JONATHAN FOSTER Northern Correspondent A 10-year-old boy was charged last night with the manslaughter of a pensioner who suffered massive head injuries when she was hit by a lump of concrete.Edna Condie, aged 74, died as she and her husband, George, and daughter, Janet, were entering a block of flats in Leeds on Tuesday.The accused boy will appear before Leeds youth court this morning. The National Council for Vocational Qualifications was monitoring the problem with education officials, she said.The A-level inquiry was broadly welcomed by teachers' organisations yesterday.Doug McAvoy, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said it would put to rest the persistent sniping to which A-level had been subjected in recent years."Students and their parents have each year faced suggestions that their results are not all they seem. It will look at standards in the exam over the past 20 years, taking into account the fact that far more people now take it.

In the Fifties, 3 per cent of the population took A-level and a third failed. Now one-third of the age group takes the exam and most pass.Mrs Shephard said: "We need to be certain that A-level is delivering the goods, and I think it is worth looking at."I have no evidence that there are grounds for huge concern but there is too much effort invested in this for it to be left to chance when we have the means of looking at it closely." Mrs Shephard added that ministers also wanted to find out why up to two-thirds of students taking new school- based vocational qualifications failed to complete them within the allotted time. Candidates with eight A-grades received letters from the new Teesside Tertiary College offering them money if they took up a place on an A-level course.Mrs Shephard said the inquiry into the exam would work alongside a review of qualifications for 16- to 19-year-olds by Sir Ron Dearing, chairman of SCAA. They are expected to report by February.News of the investigation came as a lecturers' union condemned new scholarships of up to pounds 1,200 for students with good GCSE grades as "bribes".

This year 84 per cent of entries gained a pass grade compared to 77 per cent in 1990.Gillian Shephard, Secretary of State for Education, said she had no evidence to suggest there were major problems, but she has asked the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority to join schools inspectors in investigating A- level standards. FRAN ABRAMS Schools inspectors and advisers are to investigate allegations that A-level standards have fallen, it was announced yesterday. The inquiry was proposed in April by the chief inspector of schools, Chris Woodhead, after claims the exams were getting easier. Still, I wouldn't want to deprive them of their illicit delights, even though when it comes to "areas where safety is of concern", I'd put upholding democracy quite high on my list.Yours hallucinogenically,ALIX SHARKEY. You can have my warm sample provided our elected representatives piss into the bottle first.Would our parliamentarians' results come back 100 per cent clean? I doubt it. What you are advocating is nothing less than a flagrant abuse of human rights.