No personal statement from 2024 (according to the Times)

[lieselotte]

Although you will have to fill in answers to a number of guided questions. And maybe submit a video message (maybe give students a choice so they can use their preferred communication style, I'd hate to have to put a video together).

A video message could soon replace the personal statement, the university admissions body said as it announced it was scrapping the written essay.
Candidates have a blank space on university application forms which they can fill with up to 4,000 characters. Ucas said that from 2024 they will instead respond to questions that will guide them to support their application in the right way.
Social mobility experts have campaigned for change and said personal statements were “barometers of middle-class privilege” because wealthier teenagers had tailored help. Numerous companies offer their services and private school sixth forms have specialists to help pupils.

Ucas is making the changes after a consultation with 1,200 students, 170 teachers and more than 100 universities and colleges. It said this paved the way for further change in future, such as moving from written text to multimedia submissions.
While students want the space to advocate for themselves on the form and demonstrate achievements beyond grades, most said the process of writing the personal statement was stressful and difficult to complete without support.

The questions the admissions service plans to introduce include asking about applicants’ motivation and preparedness for the course, their preparation through other experiences, any extenuating circumstances, how prepared they are to study and their preferred learning style.
Kim Eccleston, head of strategy and reform at Ucas, said in a blog for the Higher Education Policy Institute: “We believe this will create a more supportive framework, which in turn will help guide students through their responses by removing the guesswork, as well as capturing the information universities and colleges have told us they really need to know from applicants when it comes to offer-making.
“We are continually working to improve the admissions service to serve applicants better and broaden participation for all students, whether pursuing a traditional undergraduate degree or an apprenticeship.
“Through these upcoming reforms, we aim to introduce greater personalisation for students making post-secondary choices, give more structure to free text sections of the Ucas application, enhance visibility of the range of grade profiles and deliver new initiatives to support further widening access and participation.”

The change will affect those applying in 2024 to start university in 2025.
Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at Exeter University, has campaigned for change. He said: “This is a significant breakthrough in our efforts to make university admissions fairer and fit for purpose for all students.
“Personal statements have become little more than barometers of middle-class privilege, disadvantaging applicants from poorer homes who do not benefit from the extra help provided by an army of advisers filling in the submissions.
“I’m afraid it is time to say goodbye to the university love letter that has been a key part of university applications for decades.

“No one should underestimate how important this reform will be in helping to level the playing field in university admissions. Statements currently add further advantage to middle-class applicants who are often given help in filling in their submissions.”
On its website, Charterhouse, a private school, says: “We offer guidance on choosing degree courses and universities as well as support on writing personal statements. We have dedicated specialists for Oxbridge, medical and law applications and applications for the USA.”
Cheltenham Ladies’ College, a private boarding school for girls, has a dedicated professional guidance centre which supports girls in their university applications.
Radley College, an independent boys’ boarding school, has a director of university entrance whose team provides “comprehensive guidance through the process of applying to UK universities through Ucas.”

Totally agree that post-results applications is the way forward.
No sign of that sadly.

I completely agree with you that post results applications are the way forward. Because DS firmed a Scottish university with a very early start-of-term date, he had just over two weeks between A level results and turning up. Barely time to buy the right duvet. I had to book us train tickets and overnight accommodation when the offer was still conditional.

I'm glad that an expert like @poetryandwine likes the idea of a prediction-accuracy audit though I'm surprised that it doesn't already happen. DS had a three A star prediction and got an ABB offer for a course that usually offers at least three As. As it was, he did well but he might have ended up going to this prestigious blah blah university with far lower grades that should get a place purely because his school gave him nice predictions.

As an aside, he got A star A star A, so one below his predictions. To me, that doesn't feel like the school were recklessly optimistic because they're operating on a best day, small improvement on mocks basis. I feel one grade off feels like that's in the normal +/- bounds, but would it count towards the 'overprediction' statistics?

if videos become a thing, watch out for accent coaches to ensure your little middle class darling sounds a bit less posh…

A good question, @Valleyofthedollymix . That isn’t the kind of over- prediction that would irritate me!

Indeed,@DazzlePaintedBattlePants Admissions tutors really will not care but a certain type of parent will not believe this. The implications for further class divisiveness are a big reason I think it will not happen

Ha! I know parents that removed the ancestral portraits from the zoom-room for Oxbridge online interviews...

Going back to predictions, I guess schools could be audited with a score of + or - per A level and then given an average. So DS's overall results would have scored a -0.333, which would probably be a reasonable result for a school to have. Anything over a +/-1 would indicate that the school was consistently getting it wrong because normally you'd expect that if one child did unexpectedly well then another might do badly, so it would even out.

@Valleyofthedollymix If by one grade off you mean for one out of the 3 subjects, e.g. AAA instead of AAB, I think that's justified.

However, if you mean one grade per subject, e.g. AAA instead of BBB, I don't.

My DS's school is ultra-principled on predictions, basing them upon their AS level scores (cue lots of "passionate" negotiations at parent/teacher interview day), whereas the neighbouring Grammar school routinely over-predicts a grade higher per subject than pupils' AS results; the pupils being told they're expected that they'll outperform at A level.

The boys at both schools tend to mix together so it makes for some interesting discussions between them.

I'm in Scotland... DS has applied to uni this year and already has 4 unconditional offers from both English and Scottish Universities based on his Higher Grades achieved last year ( although he is sitting Advanced Highers this year). It is very reassuring that he will be able tomake his choice very shortly and start arranging accommodation etc. I think that's a better system than waiting till August and everybody trying to make their arrangements... is there scope within the A level system for an interim official exam on which offers could be made?

But on the original point of thread, I too wonder how many Unis actually read the personal statement? DS spent a lot of time on his ( and I helped edit) but given the speed with which his offers came through I doubt it was given much scrutiny. He'd have absolutely loathed a video presentation though.

DTs have a couple of years to go... one does drama and would probably cope with the video idea if it did happen... the other would not cope... she has dyslexia and anxiety and would not be able to memorise her script or cope with being on camera. She's arty though... she could make a mixed media piece for her application I suppose!

Unis are mainly interested in grades, very few pay much attention to personal statements the whole thing is a complete farce and a waste of time and resources that could be spent studying instead.

seems like it needs to be repeated on every page of this thread.

The UCAS Future of Undergraduate Admissions report does not propose video statements.

www.ucas.com/file/672901/download?token=VccObZXZ

but is worth a read through and only 11 pages long including lost of pictures!

It covers

Academic References

Grades on entry

Personal Statements (completely misrepresented by the media)

Personalisation

Widening Access and Participation

lots of pictures too, though presumably some did get lost in the editing process.

@WombatChocolate I'd agree although to be fair to UCAS it was covered in their April 2021 report Reimagining UK Admissions

www.ucas.com/file/440906/download?token=xYT93dPW

although a cynic might possibly view it as kick into the long grass exercise.

Though that also gives rise to students dropping out of advanced Highers when they get their unconditional offers, or becoming apathetic about study. I know several who lost motivation when their offers came though and dropped subjects before their exams. It seems that for some courses (including medicine) they are now making offers which include achieving ‘token grades’ at Advanced Higher to keep them studying - for example someone I know got an offer of BBB for advanced higher to study medicine.

Does anyone know the latest on this? Got a DC applying for 2025 entry and wondering if this has been confirmed and whether the new format has been made available yet.

A terrible idea for those with anxiety and Asd. Some universities such as Swansea are already using video submissions as a way of pre interview screening for health science courses. Fortunately they are in a minority for now.

@biarritz the requirement for a video submission was only ever mooted by the press. There has never been any reference to it, as far as I know, from UCAS or the universities; who has always just stated the PS will be replaced with a set of structured questions.

I'd forgotten about this thread.

I'd much rather write a statement than record a video. What a faff. It makes sense if you want to do a broadcast journalism degree I guess!

I would like to see different entry requirements for state vs private school pupils (I would use the term public but wanted to be clear what I was referring to). I don't just mean the contextual offers, I mean for all state pupils, to take into account the fact that private schools buy you a grade up from what you would have achieved at state school. I think this would be a much better leveller.

As admissions tutor for my course, I would hate to have to watch dozens of videos (or hundreds for some courses).

Learning styles is nonsense and what is the point of that question anyway? The rest of the questions I don't mind particularly but if an applicant is applying for several courses they'll struggle to answer.

@ScotsTaxQuery looks like 2026 entry will now be the earliest introduction.

https://www.theuniguide.co.uk/advice/personal-statements/when-will-ucas-scrap-personal-statements-major-change-to-university-applications-planned

The current personal statement requirements will not change until autumn 2025 at the very earliest.

That means the very first people who could be affected would be those who are submitting an application in the autumn and winter of 2025, to start university in 2026.

That article is from early November 2023 so just a couple on months ago. There's likely something on the actual UCAS site as well

From the horse's mouth https://www.ucas.com/about-us/news-and-insights/reforming-admissions scroll down to the " more on the personal statement" section

When will these changes go live?

• Informed by feedback from stakeholders across the education sector, we plan to introduce these changes in 2025 for 2026 entry.
• This will ensure that we can produce guidance to support applicants and advisers in completing the new format.

Six themes originally mooted now down to three:

From the original six themes, the following three themes have been confirmed by consultation with providers and advisers for inclusion in the personal statement section. They are intended to help admissions teams assess whether applicants are a good fit for the course, and how they might compare to other applicants for the same courses:

• Motivation for course: Why do you want to study these courses?
• For some students this might relate to careers ambitions, for others it may be a simple love of the discipline. In considering this question, students will be ensuring through their research on courses that their options really do deliver against what they’re looking for – whether that’s sector body accreditation, a pathway to a specific profession or the opportunity for a deep dive into a subject area that fascinates them. Providers are looking for evidence that students understand that no two courses – even those with the same title – are the same, and that their course is a good match for the student.
• Preparedness for course: How has your learning so far helped you to be ready to succeed on these courses?
• This is an opportunity for students to highlight what they’ve gained from school/college or other formal learning opportunity. This might be an A level curriculum helping them understand the breadth of a discipline and pointing them to further research into where their interests most lie. It may be specific skills and competencies related to the courses they want to go on to study. As always, answers will be personal to each student but key here is demonstration of understanding of what will help them succeed.
• Preparation through other experiences: What else have you done to help you prepare, and why are these experiences useful?
• The experiences featured here are likely to be varied and may include activities such as self directed extracurricular learning, involvement in sports or social clubs, and employment or other work experience. What all responses should include is a reflection on why the activity is being referenced – what has been learned from it? What skills have been developed? What critical thought has been sparked, and what did the student do next as a result? Why will these things help them on their courses?

Following consultation, it became apparent there were concerns that two of the themes proposed were potentially going to be difficult to tailor to universities offering different teaching and assessment styles, and therefore were likely to produce generic answers.
These have been withdrawn and are no longer under consideration for the personal statement. The extenuating circumstances theme was recognised as being extremely valuable, and that it would be better placed in its own section. UCAS is looking to deliver this alongside the reformed personal statement.

• Extenuating circumstances: Is there anything that the universities and colleges need to know about, to help them put your achievements and experiences so far into context?
• Not all students will feel the need to respond to this question, but for those who strongly feel that they would like to contextualise their application in their own words, this space allows them to do this without 'spending' words they could be using to articulate their skills and suitability for the courses.

Withdrawn themes:

• Preparedness for study: What have you done to prepare yourself for student life?
• Preferred learning styles: Which learning and assessment styles best suit you – how do your courses choices match that?

and in terms of video

We know there’s interest in mixed media personal statements – whether that’s from providers offering courses where other skills such as performance are more relevant, or from students who feel they can better present themselves in ways other than writing.
In splitting the personal statement into sections, we can start to explore combining written and other responses – but as always we will conduct significant customer and stakeholder engagement before making any decisions on this.

@Bergamotandbay never going to happen

The 3 questions/areas they are going with, are basically the 3 things good personal statements do now…..why do you want to study this course, how has your current course prepared you, what else you’ve done to prepare/broaden your knowledge and your thoughts on it.

Good PS do this now. Lots though have multiple paragraphs and stuff that isn’t relevant or focused. So having the 3 Qs will help people focus more, even if they don’t get guidance to cover these areas beforehand. Actually most places do give guidance and direct them o cover these areas, but lots of candidates simply ignore the advice or materiasl ir cannot understand how to relate their own experiences or course choices to that structure. If the Fkrm has these 3 Qs with a space for the answer to each, it will help people focus more.

Of course, those who by the point they are about to apply, still haven’t actually done anything beyond their A Level courses to broaden knowledge etc, will still have little to write in this section.

Perhaps of comfort is the fact that often it’s really only the courses that are very competitive in competitive places that put much focus on the PS ir even read them. The predicted grades will still be the big and often only determinant of an offer or not. And not surprisingly the students with the top predicted grades tend to be those able to write a good PS and who have lots to say about their current course of study and other stuff they have done beyond the course.

Interesti g that the change is delayed by a year. Anyone writing their PS for 2025 entry though wouldn’t go too far wrong to structure their writing around those 3 Qs that will be used for 2026.