Good Practice
Admissions Policies
An institution's admissions policy underlies everything it does in the area of the admission of students, from enquiries, recruitment and outreach to making decisions, transmitting data to UCAS, relationship building, diversity, transition support, registration and beyond. Closely related to the institution's mission it shows the commitment of the institution to applicants and students. Institutions are urged to have comprehensive admissions policies that are easy to understand and are transparent to applicants and their advisors. Admissions policies have recently been of particular focus in England as a result of the requirement to provide a high-level admissions policy as part of the Widening Participation Strategic Assessments for HEFCE and the Office of Fair Access.
SPA has been developing a draft statement since June 2008, which was circulated to the HE admissions community for comment and is very grateful to colleagues in institutions across the UK for their suggestions and advice, which have been incorporated into the Statement. The final version of the Good Practice Statement on Admissions Policies is now available and we hope that colleagues will find it helpful. To assist you in this complex area we have also developed a summary checklist of what needs to be included in policies.
SPA continues to be very interested in knowing how different HEIs develop, evaluate and update their Admissions Policies and HEI colleagues are invited to share views on these issues and any concerns or queries that they may have in this area. SPA would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you and share further the good practice we are developing. Of course, if you have any comments, or suggestions for improvement, we should be very glad to hear from you; please contact Leslie Currie, Senior Project Officer.
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Reviewed and updated: July 2009