HEPI’s Report Shows Predicted Grades Benefit On Students’ Admissions

On March 18, the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) released a report which elaborates the future of the United Kingdom university admissions, Erudera.com reports.

Edited by Rachel Hewitt, this edition of the HEPI report includes topics as:

• Post-qualification admissions
• The role of detailed admissions
• The resemblance to international systems and
• The lessons to be learned from previous results

This joint report counts contributions from Universities UK, the Sutton Trust, UCAS Edge Hill, the University of Edinburgh, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA), Durham University, the University Guys and the National Education Opportunities Network (NEON).

Introducing the report, Rachel Hewitt, HEPI’s Director of Policy and Advocacy, has noted that the university admission program is complex and whether admission should have similar wide-ranging support as post-qualification is still up for debate.

In like manner, Mary Curnock Cook, former Chief Executive, also emphasizes the change in a post-result system.

“Wholesale change to a post-result system risks removing much of what is desirable in the current system for the majority of students while providing only unproven benefits (and possibly new risks) for the minority for whom change is thought to be desirable,” former executive Cook writes.

When discussing predicted results and university admissions, Dr. Mark Corver, the Founder of DataHE, asserts that predicted grades do not harm quality but overall are considered more as an aid.

In this edition of the HEPI’s report, Professor Vikki Boliver and Dr. Mandy Powell discuss the importance of contextualized admissions and whether they aim just admission procedures.

“It is understandable and appropriate that universities should engage with contextualized admissions in a somewhat cautious manner given that systems to support the learning of contextually disadvantaged students are still being developed. But it is equally important that universities set an intention to become progressively bolder in their use of contextual data to inform admissions decisions over time in the pursuit of distributive fairness goals,” Professor Boliver and Dr. Mandy Powell wrote.

Director of Student Recruitment and Admissions at the University of Edinburgh, Rebecca Gaukroger, writes about Scottish university admissions, pointing out that approximately 95 percent of Scots who chose to attend studies do so in Scotland, in comparison to English 18-year-olds.

In the chapter elaborating that schools are supportive of the admissions reform and students have reconsidered pursuing academic careers, James Turner, Chief Executive of Sutton Trust, writes that two-thirds support Program Quality Assistance. Many students from middle-class backgrounds confessed they would make different choices if they knew their results.

John Cater, Vice-Chancellor at Edge Hill University, explains the procedure of admissions at the university he works at.

“If you plan to train to teach or work in the NHS, you will normally be interviewed, face-to-face, by both an academic and an active practitioner. The university that employs me has 7,000 applications for Health programs every year, and the ability to test a candidate’s commitment and capacity for a challenging career cannot happen in the summer window,” Vice-Chancellor Carter said.

Last November, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) of the UK had announced that they would regulate two new alternatives for reforms to help students to select universities.