Admissions

Thirty universities subject to ‘enhanced monitoring’ on admissions by English regulator

Wealthier institutions urged to take lead on improving minority representation

With no good data, continental European universities cannot monitor if widening access policies are working

Palestinian applicant says he has not commented on politics himself

Revised College Board tool to provide multiple data points on students’ socioeconomic status

Every below-average neighbourhood should be defined as socioeconomically disadvantaged, conference hears

Sociologists demonstrate that brothers and sisters influence the courses students pick

Number of students taking subjects at A level drops after introduction of reformed GCSEs

Working-class graduates half as likely to move to Oxford, Cambridge or elite London institutions

While insults fly on social media, student references can be excessively bland. Is society served by either?

Schools used to be more honest about the pupils they were putting forward to universities, and not all applicants were predictably ‘passionate’ about their subjects. We would do well to recreate some of that spirit, says Lincoln Allison

Ongoing efforts to iron out regional anomalies are creating as many problems as they solve, says Ceren Ergenc

Non-European Union recruitment likely to widen resources gap between elite and rest of sector

New figures suggest steep rises in university participation rate in several Middle-Eastern countries, say Justin D. Martin and Fouad Hassan

Reduction driven by shrinking of school-leaver population

Social mobility charity says 11- to 16-year-olds in England and Wales may be increasingly aware of apprenticeship options

Abolishing predicted grades system would help poorer students, says Angela Rayner

UK admissions processes haven’t changed for decades but a new system will demand flexibility for the shifting policy landscape and fluctuating demographics, says Chris Husbands 

Universities, already facing upheaval on several other fronts, fear imminent plans could make it far harder to recruit students

Manoeuvre seen as ethically flawed but also as a sign of the country’s growing student debt crisis

Students’ talents wear many guises, depending on the person, the field and the judge. But instilling ethics is also crucial, says Howard Gardner

Thirty-eight per cent of 18-year-old applicants received at least one offer with an unconditional component in 2019, Ucas data show

German universities need to collect better data and rethink selection system to improve integration, analysis finds

Survey affirms need for boosting human-based concerns in admissions and curricula

But overall students are split on the policy of making lower grade offers to applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds

Scholars question whether move against autonomous private schools will go far enough in equalising university admissions

Law dean calls Amy Wax’s views ‘repugnant’ but does not answer demands for her removal

UUK announces review of university admissions, after similar review ordered by the Westminster government.

New vice-chancellor of federal university to focus on boosting international programmes and ‘selling London brand’ post-Brexit  

The coach, Peter Brand, had accepted high home purchase price from applicant’s father

Daughter of academic immigrants has plenty of history on higher education policies

Supplementing SAT scores with an ‘environmental context dashboard’ will not overcome the influence of non-academic factors, says Jessica Welburn Paige

Means-tested fees discounts would remove the rationale for fruitless widening participation efforts, argues Norman Gowar

Universities’ income, collaborations and reputation will all suffer if the country doesn’t re-engage with expertise before it is too late, says Gavin Esler

The country’s increasingly similar universities also need to be forced to specialise, argues government advisory body

The qualification is a valuable tool to recruit students to at-risk programmes that meet projected skills gaps, says the QAA’s Julie Mizon

Similar to broader scandal, case raises question of sports coach allegedly aiding applicants

East Asian giant now challenging more established rivals on Western-style benchmarks

Rejected student had found fame advocating guns after his own school shooting

Experts propose ‘national widening access cohort’ as alternative to widely criticised POLAR measure

Leniency shown to former Stanford coach not likely for parents and other participants, judge suggests

Tributes paid to a pioneer of applying computer power to university administration

Australian universities kept doing what they were already doing after government froze teaching funds

Former universities minister renews attack on Oxford’s and Cambridge’s records on access

Use of of group-level indicators to identify disadvantage will limit the impact of Oxford’s embrace of contextual admissions, says James Robson

Declines heaviest among small colleges, men, and states of Florida and Illinois

Education secretary hits back at university leaders who called his intervention on ‘conditional unconditional’ offers unlawful

University to launch two new schemes for state school students, with one offering 50 places on basis of lower contextual grades

‘Real-time’ data from recruiter’s website shows ‘travel ban’ tweets immediately put off Indian students, conference told

Falling UK graduate wages reflect not too many students but a flexible labour market’s post-crash adjustment, argues David Willetts

Experts question government decision to continue reserving 90 per cent of pre-university programme places to Malay majority

Better outreach and greater involvement in exam boards could raise expectations and standards for disadvantaged would-be students, says Martin Stephen

System expansion is not enough. Admission to higher-tariff institutions must somehow be opened up, says Paul Jump

Biggest payment in admission fraud linked to Yusi Zhao, also known as Molly

Shrinking enrolments at Southampton, Manchester and Sheffield suggest English elite are not immune to pressures of marketisation

Regulator suggests that most selective universities could admit students with grades BCC at A level without a marked fall in academic standards

At the University of Iceland, female students outnumber men by two to one. But among professors, the ratio is the reverse

The US admissions scandal notwithstanding, Australian university history reveals a variety of approaches to allocating university places, say Gwilym Croucher, James Waghorne and Hamza Bin Jehangir

Politicians seeking to quell discontent about inequality and pre-empt populists could turn on elite institutions, observers predict

Opponents should learn from Chinese candidates’ successful and potentially formative forays into democratic politics, says Salvatore Babones