Good Practice
Planning and Managing Admissions
Good Practice in setting entry criteria and offer-making
Much of SPA's work concerns the decision-making and offer-making process and existing recommendations of good practice on our website contribute to professional practice in this area (e.g. on admissions policies; entry profiles; interviews; admissions tests). Institutions frequently discuss this issue with us, particularly as they consider changes or respond to increased selection demands.
However, we have also received a number of queries from our stakeholders representing the pre-HE sector about how higher education providers consider applications and make offers. It is important that applicants and their advisors have confidence in HEIs' fair and robust offer-making practice.
The following links are therefore intended to supplement SPA's good practice statements and briefings and provide timely guidance for staff in admissions, marketing, planning and in academic departments to review their strategies for managing student intake.
- Changing practice
- Defining your entry criteria and typical offers
- Recommendations for setting entry criteria
- Recommendations for offer-making
- FAQs
We welcome your comments, concerns and suggestions, particularly if you have, or are in the process of, changing your offer-making strategy. Please contact Dan Shaffer, SPA Senior Project Officer, at d.shaffer@spa.ac.uk or any other member of the SPA Team
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Reviewed and updated: July 2011