Good Practice

Planning and Managing Admissions

Good Practice in setting entry criteria and offer-making

Recommendations for offer-making

SPA is currently considering issues of good practice in offer-making. Two seminars on this topic, run jointly with UCAS, were run in October and November 2009 and were attended by around 90 senior HE admissions staff from across the UK. The seminars focused on the legal, reputation and planning implications of this vital process that forms an agreement between institution and applicant. Misinterpretation of or inconsistencies in offers adversely affect institution and applicant alike, so it is important that such issues are carefully considered and addressed.

You can download the presentations here.

SPA has also contributed to the UCAS Group Award Offer Group, which has recently published helpful advice on the particularly complex issues arising from considering multi-component qualifications and representing them in entry requirements and offers.

How you use offers dictates:

Your agreement/obligation to take an applicant (the 'contract')
Your assurance to your institution that new students will have attained a set level of academic achievement/knowledge and non-academic standards
How you are considered against offers from competitors
Potential conversion rates (including insurance)
Your ability to control intake against targets
Short-term interpretation by that cycle's applicants and long-term impression from their schools/colleges.

back to Offer-making main page

Reviewed and updated: October 2010