University Admissions: Towards Fair and Transparent Practices

1. University admissions practices: What is right? What is wrong? How should they change? Steven Schwartz

2. Margaret Ferguson

3. Diversity is still a long way away

6. Milton Friedman

7. Income-Contingent Loan • No money up-front • No chance of default (poor credit rating) • Only pay if benefit

13. Fair Admissions

14. There are different interpretations of merit

15. It can be difficult for applicants to know how they will be assessed or why they were rejected

16. The information used in assessing applicants may not be reliable or valid

17. Some courses have high drop out rates

18. It is difficult for admissions staff to select from a growing pool of highly-qualified applicants (need finer discriminators)

19. Some applicants face a burden of additional assessment (and cost burden)

20. There is uneven awareness of qualifications and pathways into higher education (especially vocational)

21. Most offers depend on predicted grades

22. The legislation that applies to admissions is complex

23. Four basic assumptions • It is not the task of higher education admissions to compensate for educational or social disadvantage • Applicants should be individually assessed and not treated as members of a group or class • It is legitimate for higher education institutions to seek the most academically qualified students • No external body should make admissions decisions

24. Principle 1: transparency Provide the information that applicants need to make informed choices

25. Three aspects of transparency • Publish admissions policies, criteria, and processes (including weight given to predictors and non-traditional opportunities to demonstrate potential) • Publish actual entry qualifications, drop-out rates, and employment outcomes (Cook, TQI) • Provide feedback on request to unsuccessful candidates

26. Principle 2 : reliability and validity Monitor and evaluate

27. Principle 3: selecting for merit, potential and diversity • Ability to complete the course is essential • May use factors other than A-level results: other examinations, interviews, work experience (UCAS form re-design) • May consider the educational effects of diversity • May not bias the system toward or against state school or private school applicants

28. Principle 3: (continued) • Admissions criteria should not include factors irrelevant to the assessment of merit, for example institutions should not give preference to the relatives of graduates or benefactors • Institutions should have the discretion to vary the weight they give to examination results and other indicators of potential and therefore to vary the offer

29. Principle 4:minimise barriers Resources and advice available, disability, vocational qualifications

30. Principle 5:processes and professionalism Clear lines of responsibility and accountability, sufficient resources, training centralise

31. Post-Qualification Applications • Present system violates recommendations • Not reliable (half wrong) • Not valid • Not transparent • Misses students who are able to complete course • Thus, the current system is unfair • Ask Secretary of State to implement PQA as soon as possible

32. Wider recommendations • Electronic applications and new forms • One examination (included in diploma) • Review compacts and access courses • Streamline Criminal Record Bureau checks, health exams and other processes by having central repository • Part-time applicants treated the same as full-time • Central source of expertise --Muir Russell, Academy and UCAS

33. Secretary of State to commission a review after three years

36. Thank You