UCAS have been holding webinars to announce the change to references written for students by their schools and colleges as part of the UCAS application process. In future the content of the reference will be much reduced. The only details needed are:
- A general statement about the school and college
- Any extenuating circumstances which might affect an applicant’s performance in exams or assessments
- Any other circumstances specific to the applicant that universities/colleges should be aware of.
In the webinars it is suggested that for most applicants only the first section will need to be completed.
I am a higher education advisor in a further education college and I imagine that my teaching colleagues will be delighted that they will no longer need to spend a great deal of time producing an objective, informative and considered reference. However, I believe they will also be concerned that admissions tutors will not be fully aware of the applicant’s abilities and attributes when deciding whether they should be accepted on to their course. This particularly applies to vocational students who are applying for courses such as nursing, midwifery, fashion design or performing arts when our tutors had previously been nurses, midwives, fashion designers and actors. They believed that it would be helpful to the admission tutor to have their views on the abilities and suitability of the applicants to join these professions – particularly nurses and midwives. Plainly this is not the case.
UCAS have indicated that the reason for this change is:
- ‘Universities and colleges have told us that it’s becoming challenging to meaningfully compare applicants’ academic references as the content varies from referee to referee.
- Advisers report increasing pressure to invest more and more time in compiling the references with an expectation that this will increase applicants’ chances of success.’
UCAS (2023)
So, rather than attempting to remedy these concerns UCAS have decided to ditch full references altogether.
During the webinars it was suggested that the students’ personal statement will be even more important in future because some of the content of the references, such as employer feedback after a student’s work experience will need to be in the statement. I believe that this is concerning for those students from a widening participation background
I am a higher education advisor at a further education college. Compared with school sixth forms, FE colleges such as mine recruit a higher proportion of students from disadvantaged (and under-represented) backgrounds (Norris and Francis, 2014; Association of Colleges, 2022). We offer A levels but most of our programmes are level 3 vocational qualifications such as BTEC Diplomas in a wide range of subjects which students from WP backgrounds are often more comfortable taking. We hold sessions with each group describing how to complete the UCAS application process and how to write personal statements. We suggest a broad template for writing the statement but we do this by each course because the statements for an A level student are very different to those produced by art, music or sport students. Many students find the statements difficult to write so we advise them to email their drafts to us and we give feedback. Every year I give feedback on over 200 students statements. It is easy to identify those students who have been given ‘help’ in writing their statements by their parents, sibling or relatives. They tend to be written very well and comprehensively. In fact, some of these generally middle-class students indicate in their emails to me that it has been checked by their parents and relatives and just ask me to give final feedback which I duly do. Other students from less well-off backgrounds who are frequently the first in their family to apply to HE, often produce poorer statements and sometimes I give them feedback five or six times but reach a point when to continue would be to almost write the statement for them. Regrettably, those students from backgrounds which are underrepresented in HE are unable to receive the same support to write these statements and thus I suggest in future when school and college references are no longer needed they will be at an even greater disadvantage than now. Up until now we have been able to compensate for points they have missed in their statements by highlighting them in the reference. Vocational students often focus too much on the practical aspects of their course and neglect the academic features of their courses which their tutors pick up in the reference.
UCAS are currently ‘consulting’ on changes to the personal statements and suggesting that in future students will be given a six-stage standard question template to complete. This template will be very useful for A level students but they may prove a hindrance to vocational students and particularly those studying art, performing arts and music students who need to produce a very different style of statement.
I suggest that these changes may be beneficial to A level students but not to vocational students and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
References
Association of Colleges, 2022. College Key Facts. 2022/23, https://d4hfzltwt4wv7.cloudfront.net/uploads/files/AoC-College-Key-Facts...
Norris, E., and B. Francis. 2014. ‘The impact of financial and cultural capital on FE students’ education and employment progression’, in A. Mann, J. Stanley, and L. Archer, (eds), Understanding Employer Engagement in Education: Theories and Evidence. London: Routledge, 127-139.
UCAS, 2023, https://www.ucas.com/advisers/writing-references/changes-undergraduate-r...
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