WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.500 Music 00:00:00.500 --> 00:00:16.640 Competitive entry to higher education is of increasing interest to the public, to the higher education sector and to us. 00:00:17.920 --> 00:00:23.960 The societal expectation around participation in higher education has increased dramatically in recent decades 00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:28.980 and yet today we have a limited number of places available 00:00:28.980 --> 00:00:32.980 and therefore the topic is of increasing public interest. 00:00:32.980 --> 00:00:34.980 The mechanisms of how we support 00:00:34.974 --> 00:00:41.594 select the assessments used in the selection process are of great importance. So as was said 00:00:41.594 --> 00:00:49.494 SPAR was set up in 2006 and one of the issues that came out of the Schwartz report on fair 00:00:49.494 --> 00:00:55.614 admissions there were about 16 recommendations and a lot of them were the result of discussion 00:00:55.614 --> 00:01:00.934 about admissions to competitive courses and I think I'll stick to competitive courses rather 00:01:00.934 --> 00:01:04.934 than even departments because I think it varies considerably. 00:01:04.934 --> 00:01:09.954 One of the interesting developments is the increasing number of 00:01:09.948 --> 00:01:15.448 universities who haven't been in the position to be selective are having to be selective 00:01:15.448 --> 00:01:20.928 now that applications have gone up. One of the things that SPAR has been doing is to 00:01:20.928 --> 00:01:25.568 collect evidence from the visits that we make to institutions of what is good practice out 00:01:25.568 --> 00:01:31.348 there with a view to providing recommendations for good practice that can be shared across 00:01:31.348 --> 00:01:32.348 the sector. 00:01:32.348 --> 00:01:39.508 So some of the work that we've been doing in looking at how is contextual data used. 00:01:39.508 --> 00:01:42.508 data has been used by universities for years and years. 00:01:42.508 --> 00:01:44.928 It's just now got a new name, I think. 00:01:44.922 --> 00:01:50.402 and there is more focus, if you like, on how institutions are using it 00:01:50.402 --> 00:01:56.462 and they are themselves looking to do their own assessment, review 00:01:56.462 --> 00:02:00.982 of the validity and reliability of what they're doing. 00:02:01.942 --> 00:02:05.582 For selecting institutions, the number of qualifications for entry 00:02:05.582 --> 00:02:11.522 is becoming more diversified as it is for the whole of the sector 00:02:11.522 --> 00:02:19.902 and that does increase the complexity in the decision making process when you have to compare 00:02:19.896 --> 00:02:25.836 student who might have an international baccalaureate with the advanced diploma with A-levels. 00:02:25.836 --> 00:02:33.156 And that does involve staff in institutions being trained professionally in order to ensure 00:02:33.156 --> 00:02:38.356 they are up to date with the information that's available about these qualifications and also 00:02:38.356 --> 00:02:46.036 to be up to date in how they feed that back to applicants and advisers in things like 00:02:46.036 --> 00:02:50.336 entry profiles and on their websites for the benefit of the applicants. 00:02:50.336 --> 00:02:54.876 So I'm a university lecturer in physiology, in epithelial physiology, so I lecture about 00:02:54.869 --> 00:03:01.029 kidneys but in my spare time I'm currently the coordinator for admissions in medicine for the 00:03:01.029 --> 00:03:05.969 division and so I oversee admissions in medicine and currently in physiological sciences and 00:03:05.969 --> 00:03:11.789 obviously from this coming Christmas for the new course in biomedical sciences. We've had an 00:03:11.789 --> 00:03:16.169 increasingly large number of applications year on year we've had increases and we now get 00:03:16.169 --> 00:03:23.229 about 1500 applications each year and we're only allowed by the government to train 150 medical 00:03:23.229 --> 00:03:29.849 students each year. So we have to find a way of selecting those students and actually we have to find a way of 00:03:29.843 --> 00:03:35.083 shortlisting the students that we think best, stand the best chance of being admitted. 00:03:35.803 --> 00:03:42.003 So what we do is we use the BMAT both as a shortlisting tool alongside other data that 00:03:42.003 --> 00:03:47.243 allows us to identify those students that we think we should interview and appraise for 00:03:47.243 --> 00:03:48.703 their suitability for the course. 00:03:49.183 --> 00:03:54.623 And then we also use it at the end as a selection tool when we've interviewed around 425 of 00:03:54.623 --> 00:03:57.423 the applicants to decide, along with lots of other 00:03:57.423 --> 00:04:01.203 information, which students we think we should give 00:04:01.203 --> 00:04:02.903 the 150 places to. 00:04:03.823 --> 00:04:04.823 The final thing, of course, that's 00:04:04.817 --> 00:04:12.737 happened is that we've got a great many more applicants disappointed very early on. We have 00:04:12.737 --> 00:04:20.277 big demands on us now for feedback. Last Christmas we essentially didn't interview, we de-summoned 00:04:20.277 --> 00:04:24.577 without an interview a thousand people. You only need 10% of those to ask for feedback 00:04:24.577 --> 00:04:30.057 and you've got quite a lot of cases of letters to write and UCAS forms to pull out again. 00:04:30.057 --> 00:04:34.057 We have a very transparent process in that everything that we do, 00:04:34.057 --> 00:04:39.797 we publicize, we publicize through open days and we publicize through 00:04:39.791 --> 00:04:44.591 regional conferences and we have a very detailed description of our process and 00:04:44.591 --> 00:04:50.411 the role of BMAT and the other analyses that we use in the selection process on 00:04:50.411 --> 00:04:57.491 our website and in our literature. We do regular analyses of the outcome of our 00:04:57.491 --> 00:05:03.291 admissions exercises against the BMAT score and other information to see to 00:05:03.291 --> 00:05:08.471 make sure that the data that we're using is actually predicting the likelihood of 00:05:08.471 --> 00:05:10.611 of getting a place and the likelihood 00:05:10.611 --> 00:05:12.511 of being successful on our course. 00:05:12.511 --> 00:05:14.771 Admissions tests aren't a magic bullet, 00:05:14.765 --> 00:05:20.925 a single and sole source of evidence for making an admissions decision. Institutions using 00:05:20.925 --> 00:05:26.705 admissions tests use them sensitively alongside other information on the candidate and that 00:05:26.705 --> 00:05:34.485 information relates to testimonies, the personal reference given on the UCAS form, qualification 00:05:34.485 --> 00:05:40.665 outcomes from GCSE and A-level and other information. It's a complex decision making process. 00:05:44.765 --> 00:05:48.025 Here's what's lose mic, I'm here.