Nicola Woolcock, Education Editor
Thursday January 12 2023, 2.35pm, The Times
A video message could soon replace the personal statement, the university admissions body said as it announced it was scrapping the written essay.
Candidates have a blank space on university application forms which they can fill with up to 4,000 characters. Ucas said that from 2024 they will instead respond to questions that will guide them to support their application in the right way.
Social mobility experts have campaigned for change and said personal statements were “barometers of middle-class privilege” because wealthier teenagers had tailored help. Numerous companies offer their services and private school sixth forms have specialists to help pupils.
Ucas is making the changes after a consultation with 1,200 students, 170 teachers and more than 100 universities and colleges. It said this paved the way for further change in future, such as moving from written text to multimedia submissions.
While students want the space to advocate for themselves on the form and demonstrate achievements beyond grades, most said the process of writing the personal statement was stressful and difficult to complete without support.
The questions the admissions service plans to introduce include asking about applicants’ motivation and preparedness for the course, their preparation through other experiences, any extenuating circumstances, how prepared they are to study and their preferred learning style.
Kim Eccleston, head of strategy and reform at Ucas, said in a blog for the Higher Education Policy Institute: “We believe this will create a more supportive framework, which in turn will help guide students through their responses by removing the guesswork, as well as capturing the information universities and colleges have told us they really need to know from applicants when it comes to offer-making.
“We are continually working to improve the admissions service to serve applicants better and broaden participation for all students, whether pursuing a traditional undergraduate degree or an apprenticeship.
“Through these upcoming reforms, we aim to introduce greater personalisation for students making post-secondary choices, give more structure to free text sections of the Ucas application, enhance visibility of the range of grade profiles and deliver new initiatives to support further widening access and participation.”
The change will affect those applying in 2024 to start university in 2025.
Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at Exeter University, has campaigned for change. He said: “This is a significant breakthrough in our efforts to make university admissions fairer and fit for purpose for all students.
“Personal statements have become little more than barometers of middle-class privilege, disadvantaging applicants from poorer homes who do not benefit from the extra help provided by an army of advisers filling in the submissions.
“I’m afraid it is time to say goodbye to the university love letter that has been a key part of university applications for decades.
“No one should underestimate how important this reform will be in helping to level the playing field in university admissions. Statements currently add further advantage to middle-class applicants who are often given help in filling in their submissions.”
On its website, Charterhouse, a private school, says: “We offer guidance on choosing degree courses and universities as well as support on writing personal statements. We have dedicated specialists for Oxbridge, medical and law applications and applications for the USA.”
Cheltenham Ladies’ College, a private boarding school for girls, has a dedicated professional guidance centre which supports girls in their university applications.
Radley College, an independent boys’ boarding school, has a director of university entrance whose team provides “comprehensive guidance through the process of applying to UK universities through Ucas.”
I feel like the video part of this, even as an option (since the competition aspect basically makes it mandatory) is going to do exactly the opposite. A video of the candidate allows you to judge based on: clothes, accent, mannerisms, hair style which are far more difficult for a candidate to change to appear as whatever class they want than words, and are far easier to discriminate unconsciously based on. Even worse, it allows discrimination based on race much more easily
Why not give students the option instead of everyone having to use the same format?
So the outside help will just start video coaching and proving effectively media training, better sound quality and lighting. Subconsciously making it a million times worse
Some semi professional set up vs a shitty laptop camera and microphone….
I’ve no idea what the answer is and video probably is a better way to assess someone but holy shit it’s going to see a staggering range in production quality
Fuck it’s bad enough on zoom or teams where some folks bough a decent camera and some lights and look like tv news while others are dark shadows that are inaudible and fucking pointless!
> Social mobility experts have campaigned for change and said personal statements were “barometers of middle-class privilege” because wealthier teenagers had tailored help.
I don’t see how video statements alleviate this at all. Wealthier applicants will have tailored help in scripting and feedback on the delivery.
Plus they’re more likely to benefit from a decent place/equipment to make the statement with. It’s easy to imagine a thick accent with a poor microphone in an environment with background noise causing problems.
Then there’s room for other bias to slip in, as others have said.
“Please tell us, in 4000 words or less why you should pay us £9,200 per year, pay for your accommodation and our overpriced resources for us to teach you. Be sure to highlight what a useful person to society you will be so we can get more government grant funds for headhunting you”
“One’s father, Baron Bigwigg the IV, KBE has instilled in me the family tradition of finding one’s own path in life. A tradition I’ll be following to the letter when I choose what company to start with my inheritance. My mother you may already know from her large donations to your college…”
This is cripplingly stupid
I spent perhaps 30 hours on my UCAS statement, once it was done, I truly felt it was perfected. Every single word was chosen with precision. I did extra activities in school to enhance my PS… actually ended up coming 3rd in a National competition out of 1,700 entries.
I got all 5 offers from LSE, Oxford, Durham, Exeter, Warwick. I was very proud of what I put together.
The thought of having to wing a video call… ugh, makes me sick. There’s no finesse in that, so many factors that can go wrong. Horrible.
When will it clock that there is no way to prevent the wealthy helping their children in life.
A doctor, who marries another doctor is going to have more expertise, advice etc than someone who’s on benefits and never had a job.
I’m not even convinced private schools do best due to teaching. I think it’s a mix of inherited correlation with IQ, invested parents, stabler upbringings and expertise in going ti higher education and jobs.
I wonder how many film students are going to try uploading short films to stand out. I agree with the other commenters, this seems like a more discriminatory system in about every possible way.
What’s more important? Written ability as used in exams or digital access/competency to use for you’re inevitable >50% internet based uni course?
This was sarcasm guys. Poking fun at the fact they’re moving everything online but still charging in-person fees.
I thought it was obvious that I was saying writing was more important, as that’s how you are graded.
So applying to university is now like applying to be a contestant on a reality show.
The questionnaire aspect makes some sense. But surely videos will cause more problems with social mobility. The rich kids will hire people to help them make the videos. Plus it gives admission staff more things like accent, looks, etc to take against. You don’t really have that with plain text.
And if you can’t write a basic personal statement then how will you complete a degree?
13 comments
Nicola Woolcock, Education Editor
Thursday January 12 2023, 2.35pm, The Times
A video message could soon replace the personal statement, the university admissions body said as it announced it was scrapping the written essay.
Candidates have a blank space on university application forms which they can fill with up to 4,000 characters. Ucas said that from 2024 they will instead respond to questions that will guide them to support their application in the right way.
Social mobility experts have campaigned for change and said personal statements were “barometers of middle-class privilege” because wealthier teenagers had tailored help. Numerous companies offer their services and private school sixth forms have specialists to help pupils.
Ucas is making the changes after a consultation with 1,200 students, 170 teachers and more than 100 universities and colleges. It said this paved the way for further change in future, such as moving from written text to multimedia submissions.
While students want the space to advocate for themselves on the form and demonstrate achievements beyond grades, most said the process of writing the personal statement was stressful and difficult to complete without support.
The questions the admissions service plans to introduce include asking about applicants’ motivation and preparedness for the course, their preparation through other experiences, any extenuating circumstances, how prepared they are to study and their preferred learning style.
Kim Eccleston, head of strategy and reform at Ucas, said in a blog for the Higher Education Policy Institute: “We believe this will create a more supportive framework, which in turn will help guide students through their responses by removing the guesswork, as well as capturing the information universities and colleges have told us they really need to know from applicants when it comes to offer-making.
“We are continually working to improve the admissions service to serve applicants better and broaden participation for all students, whether pursuing a traditional undergraduate degree or an apprenticeship.
“Through these upcoming reforms, we aim to introduce greater personalisation for students making post-secondary choices, give more structure to free text sections of the Ucas application, enhance visibility of the range of grade profiles and deliver new initiatives to support further widening access and participation.”
The change will affect those applying in 2024 to start university in 2025.
Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at Exeter University, has campaigned for change. He said: “This is a significant breakthrough in our efforts to make university admissions fairer and fit for purpose for all students.
“Personal statements have become little more than barometers of middle-class privilege, disadvantaging applicants from poorer homes who do not benefit from the extra help provided by an army of advisers filling in the submissions.
“I’m afraid it is time to say goodbye to the university love letter that has been a key part of university applications for decades.
“No one should underestimate how important this reform will be in helping to level the playing field in university admissions. Statements currently add further advantage to middle-class applicants who are often given help in filling in their submissions.”
On its website, Charterhouse, a private school, says: “We offer guidance on choosing degree courses and universities as well as support on writing personal statements. We have dedicated specialists for Oxbridge, medical and law applications and applications for the USA.”
Cheltenham Ladies’ College, a private boarding school for girls, has a dedicated professional guidance centre which supports girls in their university applications.
Radley College, an independent boys’ boarding school, has a director of university entrance whose team provides “comprehensive guidance through the process of applying to UK universities through Ucas.”
I feel like the video part of this, even as an option (since the competition aspect basically makes it mandatory) is going to do exactly the opposite. A video of the candidate allows you to judge based on: clothes, accent, mannerisms, hair style which are far more difficult for a candidate to change to appear as whatever class they want than words, and are far easier to discriminate unconsciously based on. Even worse, it allows discrimination based on race much more easily
Why not give students the option instead of everyone having to use the same format?
So the outside help will just start video coaching and proving effectively media training, better sound quality and lighting. Subconsciously making it a million times worse
Some semi professional set up vs a shitty laptop camera and microphone….
I’ve no idea what the answer is and video probably is a better way to assess someone but holy shit it’s going to see a staggering range in production quality
Fuck it’s bad enough on zoom or teams where some folks bough a decent camera and some lights and look like tv news while others are dark shadows that are inaudible and fucking pointless!
> Social mobility experts have campaigned for change and said personal statements were “barometers of middle-class privilege” because wealthier teenagers had tailored help.
I don’t see how video statements alleviate this at all. Wealthier applicants will have tailored help in scripting and feedback on the delivery.
Plus they’re more likely to benefit from a decent place/equipment to make the statement with. It’s easy to imagine a thick accent with a poor microphone in an environment with background noise causing problems.
Then there’s room for other bias to slip in, as others have said.
“Please tell us, in 4000 words or less why you should pay us £9,200 per year, pay for your accommodation and our overpriced resources for us to teach you. Be sure to highlight what a useful person to society you will be so we can get more government grant funds for headhunting you”
“One’s father, Baron Bigwigg the IV, KBE has instilled in me the family tradition of finding one’s own path in life. A tradition I’ll be following to the letter when I choose what company to start with my inheritance. My mother you may already know from her large donations to your college…”
This is cripplingly stupid
I spent perhaps 30 hours on my UCAS statement, once it was done, I truly felt it was perfected. Every single word was chosen with precision. I did extra activities in school to enhance my PS… actually ended up coming 3rd in a National competition out of 1,700 entries.
I got all 5 offers from LSE, Oxford, Durham, Exeter, Warwick. I was very proud of what I put together.
The thought of having to wing a video call… ugh, makes me sick. There’s no finesse in that, so many factors that can go wrong. Horrible.
When will it clock that there is no way to prevent the wealthy helping their children in life.
A doctor, who marries another doctor is going to have more expertise, advice etc than someone who’s on benefits and never had a job.
I’m not even convinced private schools do best due to teaching. I think it’s a mix of inherited correlation with IQ, invested parents, stabler upbringings and expertise in going ti higher education and jobs.
I wonder how many film students are going to try uploading short films to stand out. I agree with the other commenters, this seems like a more discriminatory system in about every possible way.
What’s more important? Written ability as used in exams or digital access/competency to use for you’re inevitable >50% internet based uni course?
This was sarcasm guys. Poking fun at the fact they’re moving everything online but still charging in-person fees.
I thought it was obvious that I was saying writing was more important, as that’s how you are graded.
So applying to university is now like applying to be a contestant on a reality show.
The questionnaire aspect makes some sense. But surely videos will cause more problems with social mobility. The rich kids will hire people to help them make the videos. Plus it gives admission staff more things like accent, looks, etc to take against. You don’t really have that with plain text.
And if you can’t write a basic personal statement then how will you complete a degree?