Memorandum 29
Submission from the Supporting Professionalism
in Admissions (SPA) Programme
STUDENTS AND
UNIVERSITIES
Summary
— The SPA Programme leads on fair, professional
good practice in admissions and works with higher education providers
to enhance their practice, and to recommend they produce clear
admissions policies which are transparent to applicants and their
advisors.— The applicant experience underpins the fairness
agenda, and SPA is raising awareness in institutions for a strategic
approach to proving a good service for applicants.— The
Schwartz Report Review, December 2008, highlights the progress
made on fair admissions in higher education.— SPA continues
to work on admissions tests and the need for institutions to be
transparent as to how they use tests as part of admissions decision-making.
— Improvements made by the HE sector led
Delivery Partnership include the work of SPA on feedback to unsuccessful
applicants and the development of more and better Entry Profiles.
— All staff involved in admissions, both
academic and administrative need to be trained and have professional
development opportunities.
— Progression to higher education relies
on good information, advice and guidance for applicants and the
use of contextual data as part of holistic assessment.
— There is already a huge amount of partnership
working by higher education institutions with schools and colleges
throughout the UK, but devolution and the impact of legislation
is making admissions more complex.
1. The effectiveness of the process for admission
to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) including admissions tests
1.1 The admissions to higher education process
is the responsibility of each individual university and college
of higher education as independent bodies, as laid down within
the Higher Education Act 2004 for England and Wales, the Further
and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 2005, with similar legislation
for Northern Ireland. The Admissions to Higher Education Steering
Group's (Schwartz) Report Fair Admissions to Higher Education:
Recommendations for Good Practice, 2004, acknowledged that
institutions should be able to set their own criteria, choose
their own assessment methods, and select their own students. However,
it recognised it was important that everyone has confidence in
the integrity of the admissions process, and access to higher
education matters to many people, as does fair admissions.
1.2 One recommendation from the Schwartz Report
was the need for a central source of expertise and advice on admissions
issues for higher education provider institution (universities,
colleges of higher education and further education colleges offering
higher education programmes). The Supporting Professionalism in
Admissions (SPA) Programme was established in May 2006 to lead
on the development of fair admissions, providing an evidence base
and guidelines for good practice and in helping universities and
colleges maintain and enhance excellence and professionalism in
admissions, student recruitment and widening participation across
the HE sector. SPA is a small independent programme, funded by
all UK HE funding councils until 2011 and works throughout the
UK to support institutions to review their policies and procedures
to make them more transparent; to use fair methods that are open
and accountable via internal monitoring and evaluation structures
and are undertaken and managed by professional staff, whether
they be academic or administrators. SPA is increasingly having
an impact on the professionalism of admissions within HEIs, as
has been borne out through the work of the Programme's external
evaluator. Over the next three years SPA will focus more on working
with senior management teams within institutions on topics concerning
modernising admissions and the associated good practice.
1.3 As institutions are responsible for
their own admissions policy and procedures there is a diversity
of approaches in this area which reflect institutions' missions
and teaching and learning strategies, processing may be centralised
or decentralised, and there is also diversity in the range of
applicants applying. In assessing applicants' ability, motivation
and potential to succeed in higher education the majority of courses
at the majority of institutions will make decisions for full-time
undergraduate courses on the basis of the UCAS application, and
offers will be made to all those who meet the entry requirements.
Only at a small number of institutions (and even within these
institutions often only for some courses) where there are many
well qualified applicants, may admissions decision-makers use
additional factors as part of the decision-making process. The
range of information they use will depend on the level of competition
for, and type of, course the student applies for and the demands
of the course. It could include the use of interviews, auditions,
material evidence or portfolios, school performance, admissions
tests, assessment of prior experiential learning, and other relevant
factors in the applicant's background as part of holistic assessment
of the individual applicant.
1.4 In addition to full-time undergraduates
HEIs also consider and admit applicants to part-time courses,
postgraduate taught and research courses, applicants studying
at the institution or at a distance, such as work based learners.
The type of students applying therefore also vary, they maybe
17 or 18 year olds, mature students, those with no qualifications
considered on the basis of assessed experiential learning, those
with disabilities, care leavers, those with little or no experience
of higher education in their family and many others. HEIs have
policies and procedures to cover the types of courses and students
they consider to ensure decisions are made fairly and consistently.
1.5 SPA believes that "the applicant
experience" and institutions' customer service and support
plays a role here. There has been much progress on what makes
a good student experience within HEIs, but the front end of that
debate, the applicant and their experience of the institution
they apply to is the start of the student journey. This underpins
fair admissions practice—and is central to ensuring applicants
have the information they need to make their applications and
make the right choices for them and that institutions get the
applicants they want. SPA is starting to explore these issues
and their implications and has identified four stages:
— Post-application (Offer making and relationship
building; Reject and applicant feedback)
SPA is working on good practice and raising awareness
of the need for institutions to have an integrated approach to
the applicant experience and is disseminating this information
via conferences and events. The applicant experience is the first
part of strategic enrolment management that some institutions
have introduced. Other work undertaken in this area includes the
QAA Enhancement Themes in Scotland, which looked at transition
and the first year experience.
1.6 Schwartz Report Review 2008
(a) The Schwartz Report Review, which examined
the implementation by universities and colleges of the principles
of fair admissions outlined in the Schwartz Report 2004, was undertaken
in 2008 and published on 10 December 2008. This review was commissioned
by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS)
in response to the Schwartz Report recommendation to Government,
that a further review be undertaken after three years. The review
was undertaken by a research team based at Sheffield Hallam University
and managed by the SPA Programme. (b) The researchers found that
a number of the principles in the Schwartz Report had been successfully
adopted by the higher education sector, particularly in relation
to the areas of transparency, staff training and continuing professional
development, aspects of professionalism and the use of technology
to share resources and information.
(c) The Review Report highlights the positive
changes that have taken place in admissions to higher education
over the last three years, however there is more to be done to
improve transparency of admissions policies and procedures for
applicants and their advisors and SPA will work with institutions
on this. The Review Report is on the SPA website: www.spa.ac.uk/schwartz-report-review08.html
1.7 Admissions tests
(a) One of SPA's objectives has been to review
the use of admissions tests by higher education institutions in
the UK and in particular issues related to the validity and rationale
underlying the use of tests and the need to be transparent about
how test results are used to add value to the admissions decision-making
process. SPA made a written submission to the Education and Skills
Select Committee Inquiry into Testing and Assessment in June 2007,
and this document and background to the work of SPA in this area
is on the SPA website at http://www.spa.ac.uk/admission-tests/index.html(b)
In 2008 SPA identified a total of 67 tests in use in the UK. This
is an increase of ten on the 57 recorded in 2007—these are
not new tests but are due to institutions' increased transparency
regarding their use of tests as part of the admissions process.
SPA has demonstrated that admissions tests are not a big part
of HE sector admissions decision-making. Tests are used by about
0.7% of the 49,000 courses in the UCAS scheme and by a small proportion
of institutions (about 16% of the 309 HE providers in the UCAS
scheme for 2009 entry).
(c) SPA issued two good practice briefings highlighting
some of the issues around tests in December 2008. One was for
schools and colleges, the other for HEIs.
(d) It is important to note that admissions tests,
where used, only form part of the admissions decision-making process
as they provide only one piece of information about an applicant.
Details of the tests and the briefing documents can be found on
the SPA website at http://www.spa.ac.uk/admission-tests/index.html
1.8 HE sector led Delivery Partnership.
(a) The HE sector led Delivery Partnership was
set up in 2006 to take forward a number of reforms to the current
applications system arising from the Government recommendations
for improving the HE applications process. These changes were
aimed at improving the transparency, efficiency and effectiveness
of the current process for both applicants and HEIs. (b) Feedback
to unsuccessful applicants on request. SPA and UCAS have been
instrumental in supporting HEIs in taking forward the work on
feedback to unsuccessful applicants and the development of more
and better quality Entry Profiles (EPs). The Delivery Partnership
has agreed that enhanced feedback, together with an increasing
number of clear and transparent EPs developed by HEIs for applicants
on UCAS Course Search, should go a long way towards changing any
perceptions of unfairness in admissions by some stakeholder groups.
(c) Entry Profiles give applicants more
information about the course entry qualifications/ levels and
required criteria such as personal skills and qualities, relevant
work experience, motivation, audition, interview or admissions
tests. EPs are web-based, written by universities and colleges,
located in UCAS Course Search. EPs help match applicant's pre-HE
study with the HE courses, and help applicants to tailor post-16
study more precisely to HE needs. There is evidence now that applicants
are more likely to apply for a course with an EP than one without
(UCAS August 2008). The Delivery Partnership set a target for
100% of courses to have EPs by September 2009, the current figure
is just over 83%. SPA and UCAS are currently supporting HEIs to
achieve this.
The impact of the Delivery Partnership's work
has overall had a positive effect on the admissions processes
to higher education and these reforms will be evaluated in 2010-11.
1.9 Training and Professional Development
All of the issues around admissions are underpinned
by the need to ensure that all staff involved with admissions
decision-making, student recruitment, schools and colleges liaison
etc. are trained and have access to continuing professional development.
This is particularly important in terms of interviews, and other
assessment techniques requiring specific skills, in order to ensure
reliability and fairness and in the light of the continuing increasingly
complex nature of admissions decision-making.
1.10 The use of electronic information
(a) The effectiveness of the process for admission
is supported by the increasing use of electronic information exchange.
For example the move to paperless applications through UCAS or
at least "paperlite" processes, 99.9% of UCAS applications
are now sent to HEIs electronically, but in the majority of cases
a printed paper form is also still sent. There are good examples
of institutions where limited use of paper for admissions has
been introduced and is successful. (b) Increased use of electronic
information is developing rapidly, for example the importance
of HEI websites; admissions and student record systems and the
move to web based xml-links with UCAS etc. allow greater flexibility
in information and systems available to HEIs. The potential for
UCAS Apply to be tailored to individual HEI needs is becoming
a reality.
(c) Using their own institution data and statistics
obtained via UCAS, HESA and other sources as well as national
data provide rich sources of information for institutions to inform
their widening participation, marketing, targeting, recruitment,
tracking, monitoring and evaluation of admissions policies. This
includes the Unistats website (previously TQI) which includes
the National Student Survey results with more links being made
from this site to UCAS Course Search.
2. The role of the Government in developing
and promoting fair access and admissions policies for the UK Higher
Education sector
2.1 Admissions Policies As referenced
in paragraph 1.1 above, admissions are the responsibility of universities
and colleges themselves. SPA was established to work with HEIs
to develop and share good practice and HEIs must publish admissions
policies for applicants and equip all in admissions to implement
policy consistently. SPA is aware from its visits to HE providers
and its research on websites etc. that generally HEIs publish
their admissions policies, however, the level of detail tends
to vary. SPA is currently working on guidance to support HEIs
in further developing their good practice and in reviewing, and
publishing a transparent and fair admissions policy. These policies
may include the use of additional or contextual factors; a wider
range of qualifications at level 3 as part of holistic admissions
decision-making; and publication of information for applicants
about local and regional partnership arrangements, compacts, progression
agreements etc.
2.2 Monitoring and evaluation of policies in
admissions, and the practices involved in admissions decision-making
via internal admissions, teaching and learning or other committees
is an important part of quality assurance and accountability of
the admissions policies and procedures within institutions. Institutions
need to ensure they know that policies are understood and are
being followed and monitored. This should also be covered through
the institution's adherence to the precepts within the Quality
Assurance Agency's (QAA) Code of Practice on admissions to HE
(2006).
2.3 Widening Participation Strategic Assessments
(England)
SPA, alongside Universities UK, GuildHE and
other stakeholders has been involved in discussions with HEFCE
and OFFA with regards to bringing together an institution's access
agreement, widening participation strategy together with a high
level statement on admissions. HEFCE guidance for institutions
on these Widening Participation Strategic Assessments will be
issued in January 2009.
2.4 National Council for Educational Excellence
(NCEE) Recommendations
(a) Highlights from the NCEE HE strand which
impact on admissions include the need for more and better information,
advice and guidance (IAG) in schools and colleges. This refers
to IAG in relation to subject choices and progression routes to
HE as part of the applicant experience. It will be important for
HEIs to be involved in discussions with DCSF/DIUS on taking this
forward and with all the UK administrations, given IAG with regard
to progression to higher education is a UK wide issue. (b) HEIs
are also recommended to use more information to select applicants
including additional and contextual data. SPA has worked with
UCAS on the complex and sometimes controversial issues surrounding
the use of different types of contextual data. Currently many
institutions use contextual data for monitoring purposes after
the applicant has been admitted, and some admissions staff use
contextual data as part of the decision-making process. In taking
this recommendation forward there are a number of issues that
HEIs will need to consider such as ensuring fairness and equity
to all applicants, that the data used is reliable and valid and
that admissions staff are trained in how to interpret and use
the data. SPA will continue to develop these points of principle
to support institutions in their decision-making process.
3. Issues around widening participation in
higher education
3.1 The Schwartz Report highlighted that
generally there was no evidence of bias against students from
socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds or from particular
schools and colleges (Schwartz Report 2004, Section C1, page 8)
and that it was the differential rates of application rather than
bias in admissions procedures that was the main cause of under-representation
of disadvantaged groups at some institutions. More recently this
has been reinforced by research undertaken in 2008 by the Sutton
Trust for the NCEE which reported that the main cause of low representation
in higher education by certain groups was most likely due to poor
prior attainment and lower aspirations before the age of 16.
3.2 This needs to be addressed by HEIs working
with schools and colleges and a great deal of good practice in
these areas can be evidenced by what HEIs are achieving through
Aimhigher and the Lifelong Learning Networks in England, though
Reaching Higher in Wales and Learning for All in Scotland. HEIs
have many ways in which they are already working together to raise
aspiration and academic attainment amongst young people resulting
in increasing the participation in higher education. The compact
agreements with schools and colleges that many HEIs have and the
progression agreements with colleges through the Lifelong Learning
Networks in England have already shown what can be achieved by
HEIs working in partnership with schools and colleges. These go
much further than "fair access" which is sometimes narrowly
defined in terms of getting more applicants from poorer backgrounds
in to certain universities, rather than addressing the much larger
number of students with level 3 qualifications who never progress
to higher education. Recently 13 universities agreed to start
work on sharing how they can recognise each others compact arrangements
and this is a welcome development.
3.3 Detailed case studies of a number of
compact agreements which highlighted a number of good practices
were published by HEFCE in September 2008. The purpose of this
report was to provide information about compact schemes, raise
awareness of them across the sector, show how they contributed
to outreach and recruitment activities, and set out some key principles
for their use and further development. It was published as an
HEFCE issues paper September 2008/32 and can be seen at http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2008/08_32/
4. Impact of Devolution
SPA, UCAS and UUK are UK wide, but an increasing
number of initiatives and developments are going forward that
are "administration specific" further complicating the
admissions scene for applicants and universities which recruit
UK wide. The increasingly different requirements, aspirations
and priorities of the four different administrations of the UK,
and the impact of initiatives implemented by them on cross border
applications make this ever more complex. These issues include
student finance—tuition fees and bursaries, application
numbers and demographics, changes in the 14-19 curriculum, differences
in the emphasis within widening access/widening participation
work and in the role of FE and skills.
5. The impact of legislation
The complexities around the different aspects of
legislation and administrative processes in public life make the
admissions process more complex. This includes equality and diversity,
safeguarding and child protection, contract law around offer making,
the new processes regarding criminal record checks etc., which
again may differ in the devolved administrations.
December 2008
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