UCAS Future of Undergraduate Admissions - the actual proposals

[boys3]

rather than the media misdirection

This is the link to the report from earlier this week.

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

It is just 11 pages so quite easily digestible covering a range of areas. For each the report breaks it down between:

whats the issue? ;

what are we doing? ;

how can you get involved?.

The areas are

Academic References

Grades on entry (which I'm spectacularly smug about, smugness is not a great trait but hey ho)

Personal Statements (misrepresented by the media)

Personalisation

Widening Access and Participation

and ending up with What's Next - as we all know reform is an ongoing drumbeat. There's a BS bingo opportunity as well

Academic References

What we are doing

We are redressing the imbalance of effort advisers put into the reference and the value providers get from them by replacing the free text approach with three structured questions for all undergraduate applications starting with the 2024 entry cycle. These questions, which have been designed with providers, act as a built-in guide for referees keeping their focus firmly in the areas that providers want to know more about.

Enter a general statement about your school/college (mandatory for applications
sent via a registered centre)

Enter any information about extenuating circumstances which may affect this
applicant’s performance in examinations or other assessments (optional)

Use this section to outline any other circumstances specific to the applicant
that you think universities/colleges should be aware of (optional)

Providers will be able to quickly and easily find the information they need to make selection decisions and target support; advisers can be confident that their efforts are being channelled into providing the information that is most helpful; and students have more transparency over the information being shared about them

How you can get involved

If you’re writing a reference, either through our adviser portal or as an independent referee, we’ll be updating our resources to help you with this change.

Grades on entry

What's the issue (text cherry-picked by me)

In the UUK Fair Admissions Review, published in March 2022, Universities UK noted that their “(admissions) Stakeholders noted that any discrepancy between advertised entry requirements and the grades that providers ultimately accept hinders efforts to improve transparency in admissions.

What are we doing

We are building “Entry Grade Reports” which will be available through the search tool on ucas.com. These reports will give visibility of the range of grade profiles that have been accepted for entry to courses over a five-year period. User testing has shown that this tool sparks curiosity amongst students, prompting them to dig deeper into entry requirements and re-evaluate options that they may previously had considered out of reach.

Whether that range shows percentage distribution remains to be seen

Students using the tool while logged into the Hub will see a personalised view – for example, if a logged in student has indicated that they are taking BTECs or SQA qualifications, the tool will switch from A Level data to data more appropriate for their qualifications.

How can you get involved

Look out for the tool when it launches in 2023 – we will be seeking
feedback on ongoing enhancements once the tool is live.

Personalisation

What are we doing

We are using UCAS data and insight to create personalised
recommendations for students making post-secondary choices.
The Career Quiz, which has seen over 1.6m users visit since its
launch in September 2021, already shows students the relationship
between careers, higher education courses and graduate
outcomes.

We are building on this and have created a prototype
for a personalised course recommendation tool. The tool using
the information student share with UCAS when they create their
account, looking at their subjects areas of interest, career goals,
grade profile, willingness to travel and other attributes to make
recommendation on courses. The tool is designed to expand choice,
presenting options that students may not necessarily encounter or
consider.

In a trial with 300 year 13 students, using the information
students provided, they were sent course recommendations based
on their preferences feedback. 91% agreed the recommended
courses were of interest, and only 39% said they had already seen
the courses. 69% said it helped them consider new options.

How can you get involved

We are looking to expand the trial of the course recommendation
engine, to see how it can be developed and used at scale to help
students make more informed, data driven decisions.

Widening Access and Participation

What's the issue

essentially progress has slowed in recent years

What are we doing

Informed by national consultation, we have launched the Fair Access Programme, which aims to support universities and employers in their efforts to widen access and participation by:

‣ transforming the sector’s understanding of students through new questions, data and insight;

‣ connecting HE and outreach providers to the hardest to reach students, earlier;

‣ helping the sector understand what works in WP;

‣ bringing schools and universities closer together;

‣ removing barriers and inspiring students.

Through the Fair Access Programme, we are delivering and developing a range of initiatives to supporting the most disadvantaged students progressing to higher education or apprenticeships and adding value to the existing work across the sector.

In 2023 we intend to launch our Outreach Connection Service. Raising awareness of the full range of outreach and support available, this new service will help schools and students navigate and connect to the opportunities offered by HE providers and third-sector organisations. Not only will this significantly enhance our understanding of how students engage with such opportunities and their subsequent progression, it will also inform sector-wide evaluation and impact measurement. The service creates a ‘single source of truth’ about the trusted outreach opportunities available to all UCAS-registered centres in the UK; we will begin by working closely with a range of partners to act as early adopters

How can you get involved

Join our virtual community via [email protected] - through this group, we will be sharing the latest insight, asking for views and collaborating to shape our future offer – and look out for our Fair Access Programme roadshow starting in early 2023

Personal Statements- the big one in terms of misrepresentation and the associated response (see the other thread on this)

What's the Issue

Middle class advantage; a mechanism that widens the gap; stressful process . That's my summary the report text is somewhat longer

The other key bit of text is

There are also concerns about the extent to which students understand how
providers use personal statements in decision-making. 100% this needs a lot more transparency imo

What are we doing

Working with students and providers, we have tested different models to identify a way to retain the space for the student voice that the personal statement offers while reducing the associated stress. Through this work both groups identified a preference for structured questions that bring focus and clarity for students, reducing the need for support. This approach also supports comparability for providers.

Following on from this, we have been engaging further to begin establishing the focus of the questions. Six key areas have been identified by Providers so far:

‣ Motivation for Course – Why do you want to study these courses?

‣ Preparedness for Course – How has your learning so far helped you to be ready to succeed on these courses?

‣ Preparation through other experiences – What else have you done to help you prepare, and why are these experiences useful?

‣ 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?

‣ 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?

We continue to refine these areas to ensure that they capture the
information providers really need from applicants.

It seems like an opportunity to once again widen access at the cost of the most able and dedicated students/schools/colleges. The personal statement is a good opportunity to show you can formulate an essay/report which is essential at university. Those proposed questions still have the opportunity to show off depending on the word limit.

Personal Statements - how can you get involved

As we work to refine and deliver this change, we are continuing to engage with customers and stakeholders – if you would like to feed into this, we are particularly interested in these areas: ‣

Questions
Beyond the six areas identified, are there any areas that you feel are missing?

Readiness

Based on current feedback on the time needed for students and advisers to prepare for a new approach, we understand that a new approach for the personal statement should be introduced no earlier than 2024 for 2025 applicants. Based on your own position, how much preparation would you need to undertake for a new approach, and when would the ideal launch cycle be?

Multiple Statements
We hear very mixed perspectives from all customer and stakeholder groups on the benefits and challenges of allowing students to write a different personal statement for each of their application choices. Under this model, what are your views on this?

There is then a link to a survey anyone can respond to

Restructuring the Personal Statement in this way also paves the way for further enhancements in future years such as moving from written text to multi-media submissions. As always, we are committed to working with all customer groups as we explore and maximise the potential of this new format.

forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=RMorxstwe0WjVd6qXLfmieyMP_XvdWlKpBdBAlB1SD5UQjZHQ1ZJTFNXVVhJQk4xVkg3TEVCS01YUC4u

Link to the UCAS survey on the Personal Statement proposals

Have you got your 'All Lives Matter' badge yet?

Thanks for doing this, boys.

As a teacher of many sixth formers and mother to two DCs who have just gone through it, these changes can't come soon enough, especially the references bit!

I think structuring the personal statement into six defined areas will help those students who haven’t got a clue what to write about and aren’t getting the support to guide them. Because some write about some really odd stuff. Saying that I’m sure some will still find the opportunity to write about some really odd stuff in those six sections. I also think some students will still get too much guidance/be told what to write/have someone write it all for them so I’m not sure how much difference it will make.

I’ve always had serious doubts about the value of the academic reference. I pay scant attention to them when reading them. I have yet to read one which says this student is a lazy arse who will do the minimum amount of work possible and complain like hell about everything. Yet I have multiple students on my course who would fit this description. They all had glowing academic references though. 😄

Yup! That's because that's what we at our end are told what to write!!

And the man hours (for want of a better phrase) in an average secondary school spent on this by- usually- form tutors in their limited free time, teachers writing about each subject, and heads of sixth form alongside everything else are unsustainable.

My tutor group has 28 students. That's 28 references to pull together and check and top and tail.

I teach 60 year 12s. That's 60 subject references to write in a certain style and to a required length.

It's madness.

I do feel guilty for the lack of weight I give to references when I know how much time they take. In my ucas view to read the whole reference I have to press the expand button and I never do, so I only ever glance at the first half.

Goodness!

I wish it was changing for next year as my tutor group are currently year 12...

As a former Russell Group admissions tutor, I welcome these proposals. A few really excellent writers may be constrained, but many more will be saved from miscalculated attempts at cleverness. Thei guidance for those who lack it in their personal lives is invaluable.

I also welcome the guidance on references, for many reasons. I love the idea of the Entry Grades Report. What’s missing, that I would like, is closer guidance on Predicted Grades. Multiple studies have shown that applicants from under-served backgrounds are more likely to be under-predicted. In my own experience, a few schools habitually over-predict also. It would be good if UCAS would address both problems

How will this affect those universities that put a high weighting on the PS (thinking of the likes of LSE) who do not interview? Will this lead to more entrance tests? Will they still expect highly academic answers to their questions?

The universities which feel strongly about it can agitate - sorry, make a strong, measured case - for the 'submit multiple PS' option - and also possibly to be allowed to formulate their own version, without submission of which, the applicant receives an automatic rejection?

😂😂😂