Institutional support

Visits to Higher Education Providers

A key part of SPA’s work is gathering examples of good practice by visiting institutions offering higher education courses. Since its inception in 2006 SPA staff have visited over 110 such institutions and have identified a huge amount of good practice in admissions and related areas. Institutions are carefully chosen to ensure a good spread by geographical area, type, size and mission group (e.g. Russell, Million+ etc.)

Visits vary in detail but usually include meetings with a senior member of the institution’s staff, extensive discussions with colleagues in admissions and recruitment and meetings with colleagues involved in widening participation or access.

Following visits a short report is completed identifying the HEI’s admissions processes and policies and highlighting examples of good practice. With the agreement of the university or college we are able to extend the many innovative and interesting examples of good practice to other institutions by means of SPA’s Good Practice Statements, as well as practical advice and guidance on specific issues. Feedback on the visit is also requested from the HEI and studied by SPA. If requested the SPA team are also able to elaborate on any specific aspects of the institution’s policies and practices to help them improve.

Very importantly, it also gives an opportunity for staff in the institution to discuss openly in a neutral forum what they would like from SPA, how things work in the admissions, recruitment and widening participation or access areas at their institution and current issues (national, regional or local) that they would like to learn more about or share information on.

Our visits aim to be informal, informative, interactive and supportive. We do not charge for our visit, we are not an audit body, we do not report to other bodies as we are independent.

Please see our HEI Visit Agenda for full information.

The SPA team is keen to hear from HEIs that would be interested in hosting a visit; please contact enquries@spa.ac.uk or call 01242 544891.

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Reviewed: July 2009

Your feedback:

"It was fantastic to be able to discuss issues and best practice and get feedback without having to re-invent the wheel, had we to do this on our own without advice."
Jason Norris, Manager of Undergraduate Admissions & Student Recruitment, University of Dundee

"I found the visit incredibly useful in that it allowed someone slightly removed to make observations and identify areas where we could change, but also where we were doing well."
Chris Alcock, Admissions Manager, Staffordshire University

"a very constructive and fruitful visit with a number of thoughtful questions and insights."
Darren Wallis, Director of Student Admissions and Recruitment, University of Warwick