Changes to grade profile releases and teacher references have been announced too. Let’s see what’s happening.

To get into uni, you’ll know you have to send in a personal statement for the course(s) you’re interested in applying for. 

It’s a process many prospective students go through, and it can be a pretty daunting process. Why? Besides achieving grades, your passion and experience for your area of study have to fit onto a piece of paper that you’ll be judged by. Often, you’ll also need support from your peers and teachers to get your personal statement to the best it can be.

However, the UCAS personal statement is set to be replaced by a series of questions instead, to tackle the issue of disadvantaged students being denied opportunities based on factors out of their control. This is off the back of the personal statement being deemed too stressful for students in general too.

Let’s dive into why the traditional application is being scrapped, what it’ll be replaced with and how it’ll help future students apply for uni.

Why is this happening?

UCAS has commented that the change to the 4,000-character university essay, which has been criticised for some time, will help those from disadvantaged backgrounds and create a more “supportive framework” for student selection.

In fact, The Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) report, which was published on 24 November 2022, looked at 164 personal statement drafts from 83 applicants from under-represented backgrounds — plus interviews and surveys of applicants. They concluded that the personal statement in its current format is “incompatible with Universities UK (UUK) and GuildHE’s principles of fair admissions”.

Further to this, a recent UCAS survey found that 83% of students reported the process of writing a personal statement as “stressful”, and 79% said it’s difficult to complete without support. 

How will this help future uni applicants?

Various educational providers, including the advocacy of Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, told UCAS that the academic reference section of a student’s application was not only subjective but made it harder to judge applicants from one another. 

The personal statement essay is set to be replaced by three structured questions, which dive into things like a mandatory general statement about the referee’s school, plus optional information sections on extenuating circumstances affecting the applicant’s performance. 

With these changes, more transparency, fairness and clarity on a student’s background and goals should pave the way for further opportunities to those who may be disadvantaged.

When will these changes happen?

The UCAS application questions are set to be introduced in 2024, for students entering higher education in the academic year of 2025. We’ll update this article with further information on what this process looks like in the near future.

How will applying to uni through UCAS work?

The Future of Undergraduate Admissions report by UCAS announced that academic references would become a series of structured questions instead.

This means students can see a range of accepted entry grades for different courses, to improve transparency and help inform decisions on which universities they may want to consider applying to.

Plus, entry grade reports will be available through the UCAS website, which will give a range of grade profiles that have been accepted onto courses over a five-year period. This will help applicants dig much deeper into entry requirements for courses to help inform their application for specific courses.

How do you feel about the change to the UCAS application process that’s set to roll out in 2024? Let us know your thoughts through the Student Beans Instagram — and be sure to give it a follow for the latest news.