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University admissions practices: What is right? What is wrong? How should they change?
Steven Schwartz
Margaret Ferguson
Diversity is still a long way away
Milton Friedman
Income-Contingent Loan
No money up-frontNo chance of default (poor credit rating)Only pay if benefit
Income Top-up-fee repayment
£0 to £15,000 Nil
£16,000 £1.73 per week
£20,000 £8.65 per week
£30,000 £25.96 per week
Fair Admissions
There are different interpretations of merit
It can be difficult for applicants to know how they will be assessed or why they were rejected
The information used in assessing applicants may not be reliable or valid
Some courses have high drop out rates
It is difficult for admissions staff to select from a growing pool of highly-qualified applicants (need finer discriminators)
Some applicants face a burden of additional assessment (and cost burden)
There is uneven awareness of qualifications and pathways into higher education (especially vocational)
Most offers depend on predicted grades
The legislation that applies to admissions is complex
Four basic assumptions
1. It is not the task of higher education admissions to compensate for educational or social disadvantage
2. Applicants should be individually assessed and not treated as members of a group or class
3. It is legitimate for higher education institutions to seek the most academically qualified students
4. No external body should make admissions decisions
Principle 1: transparency
Provide the information that applicants need to make informed choices
1. Publish admissions policies, criteria, and processes (including weight given to predictors and non-traditional opportunities to demonstrate potential)
2. Publish actual entry qualifications, drop-out rates, and employment outcomes (Cook, TQI)
3. Provide feedback on request to unsuccessful candidates
Three aspects of transparency
Principle 2 : reliability and validity
Monitor and evaluate
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
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
Principle 4:minimise barriers
Resources and advice available, disability, vocational qualifications
Principle 5:processes and professionalism
Clear lines of responsibility and accountability, sufficient resources, training centralise
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
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
Secretary of State to commission a review after three years
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