Topic briefing
Published 27 July 2020
Contextual admissions
Published 27 July 2020
Resources
Reports
- OfS Insight brief: Contextual admissions: Promoting fairness and rethinking merit (May 2019)
- UCAS: Factsheet on contextual admissions
- Higher Education Policy Institute: What do students think about contextual admissions? (July 2019)
- Fair Education Alliance: Putting fairness in context: using data to widen access to higher education (July 2018)
- Research by Vikki Boliver, Claire Crawford, Mandy Powell and Will Craige commissioned by The Sutton Trust: Admissions in context: the use of contextual information by leading universities (October 2017)
Guidance and tools
- UCAS: Guidance on contextual admissions (February 2017)
- UCAS: Contextual data service
Offers data and background information about an applicant’s school or college, and local area data in the form of POLAR3, and the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) (available to higher education providers only). - UCAS: Modernised contextualised data service
Provides applicant level data and insight into their individual circumstances. It includes an applicant’s Multiple Equality Measure (MEM) group (1-5), grade profile (containing both predicted and achieved grades), grade profiles adjusted for an individual applicant’s equality context, and POLAR4 quintile (available to higher education providers only). - The Medical Schools Council Selection Alliance - resource for medical school staff: Indicators of good practice in contextual admissions (February 2018)
Published 27 July 2020
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