Information, advice and guidance for prospective students

Read the briefing note online

• The importance of good information, advice and guidance
• The current challenge
• Approaches during the pandemic
• Conclusion
• Resources and information

By the middle of January, over 568,000 prospective students had applied to university through UCAS.¹ Only a few months later, the coronavirus pandemic has created a huge amount of uncertainty in the decision making process for these and many more subsequent applicants.

All potential students deserve to receive good information, advice and guidance (IAG) to enable them to make informed choices. Some elements of IAG are covered by consumer protection law, which continues to apply during the pandemic.² But the current lockdown and social distancing measures mean that the kinds of face-to-face and campus-based activities schools, colleges, universities and other organisations would normally offer to provide this support are off the table for the foreseeable future.

This briefing note looks at how universities, colleges and others are responding to the challenges of delivering high-quality IAG to prospective students through different channels, especially in the context of imminent decision deadlines. It does not stipulate particular approaches or endorse the actions of specific institutions, and it does not constitute regulatory guidance. Its purpose, rather, is to highlight the practical steps universities, colleges and others are taking to ensure that prospective students are as well-equipped as possible in the circumstances to make the best decisions for them.

The note’s focus is on prospective students of all ages looking to start an undergraduate course in the 2020-21 academic year. However, it is important to note that higher education is not the right route for everybody, and it is equally important that good IAG is available in relation to alternative options, including postgraduate study for those who are already in higher education.

While the OfS’s remit extends only to higher education providers in England, the approaches to IAG highlighted in this note will be relevant for students from across the UK and beyond who are considering studying at English universities and colleges.

The importance of good information, advice and guidance

Applying to university or college can be a daunting experience even when the application cycle is operating as normal. There is a wealth of information available about higher education, but research has shown that the landscape can feel cluttered, confusing and even overwhelming to prospective students.³ More information does not necessarily result in better decisions if students don’t have the right support to make sense of what they are seeing.

Prospective students need to access information and advice that is impartial, accessible and as complete as possible given the circumstances, so that they can explore their options, refine their thinking and make informed choices based on their own preferences, needs, priorities and aspirations. This has become even more important amid the current uncertainty about how the coronavirus pandemic will affect higher education in the next few months and over the longer term.

Previous polling conducted by YouthSight for the OfS found that prospective students were more likely to consult their parents, teachers and friends or peers than websites, careers advisers or staff at a higher education provider to help them make choices about what and where to study.⁴ Some prospective students and others may be disadvantaged by this reliance on members of their immediate circles.

Better informed choices can result in more students completing their studies and achieving positive employment and study outcomes. And there are broader societal benefits from individuals having a successful higher education experience, with graduates making huge contributions to the economy and public services.

The current challenge

For prospective students

For all students looking to start higher education this year, regardless of what route they are taking to get there, the admissions process and factors affecting their decisions about what, where and how to study now look significantly different from those they would have anticipated just a few months ago. Changes to the assessment of Level 3 qualifications and a lack of certainty about whether, or to what extent, campuses will have reopened by the autumn are clearly significant issues for prospective students. These factors also create challenges for universities and colleges in providing information for prospective students, but it is important to note that their legal obligations to do so remain in place.

At this stage of the academic year, applicants who are still in school or further education could normally expect to be receiving input from their teachers and other advisers on their choices. But in challenging circumstances, prioritising core curriculum delivery can result in this input being overlooked or reduced.

Recent polling by YouthSight for the Higher Education Policy Institute found that although nearly eight in 10 applicants did not plan to change their first-choice institution as a result of the pandemic, around a third of applicants felt less confident that they would get a place at their chosen institution, and only around half felt that the information they were getting from the universities or colleges they had applied to was good.⁵ Meanwhile, the Sutton Trust found that working-class applicants were more likely to be worried about the impact the pandemic would have on their chances of getting into university than their middle-class peers. Almost a fifth of the applicants surveyed had changed their mind on going to university or were now uncertain about whether to go, and students from working-class backgrounds were more likely to have decided not to go at all or changed their preferred choice of institution.⁶ Regular polling by YouthSight for UCAS has found that, although students are primarily sticking with their choices, almost a third are considering their options, and those who were the first in their family to go to higher education, those at state schools, and those from black, Asian or minority ethnic groups were more likely to have changed their decision about university.⁷

Previous research for the OfS⁸ found that while students from disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds stood to benefit the most from good information, they were also least well placed to be able to access and understand it. The current situation presents new challenges for the most vulnerable applicants, who are less likely to have access to high-quality information, advice and guidance from parents or other family members with experience and up-to-date knowledge of higher education, and potentially less able to access their teachers remotely. The Sutton Trust found that applicants from working-class backgrounds were twice as likely to have insufficient access to the internet, computing devices or quiet space than those from middle-class homes.

Disabled prospective students may need access to specific advice and information around such issues as accessibility, teaching and inclusive practices, financial support and disability services. Prospective students expecting to start a higher education course this year might be concerned about how their university or college will make adjustments for them in the event that some or all learning and teaching needs to be delivered remotely.

For those who have accepted offers, the Student Room and TSR Insight’s Navigating Changing Options Survey suggests that a priority is receiving practical information from their university or college about starting their course. This includes term dates, reading lists, and accommodation, as well as how learning will be delivered in the autumn, including the extent to which teaching is likely to be online.

TSR also points out that many prospective students who had not made their final decision before travel restrictions were put in place would have been planning to visit universities and colleges again for offer-holder days, interviews or auditions. Information about locations and the first-hand experience of visiting a university or college are high priorities for applicants in making their decisions but difficult to substitute through online or remote channels.

For universities and colleges

Universities and colleges play a significant role in providing information, advice and guidance to prospective students and supporting their decision making, for example through:

• providing prospectuses and detailed information on life at the institution
• open days, offer-holder days and campus tours
• talks in schools on topics including student finance, university life and personal statements
• attendance at careers and higher education fairs
• pre-entry careers advice
• online and telephone information and advice
• bespoke support to particular groups.

Some of these elements of IAG are covered by consumer protection law, which continues to apply during the pandemic. However, the ongoing lockdown and social distancing measures mean that such activities cannot currently be carried out face-to-face or on-campus. But simply moving this provision online is often easier said than done. For example, running online open days can be very resource-intensive, and typically relies on institutions having had video material (like virtual campus tours) available before the lockdown started. It can also be difficult to achieve a sense of community through video conferencing, especially when some participants may be unable to use the video function.

Approaches during the pandemic

The role of the OfS

The OfS is working to support students’ decision making through a regularly updated coronavirus hub on the Discover Uni website, which we manage in partnership with the other UK funders and regulators.⁹ The new coronavirus hub includes information on key topics like school exams, the admissions process, student finance and additional information for particularly vulnerable groups. The hub also signposts students to other official and trustworthy sources of information. The OfS’s FAQ for students also includes a section specifically for those applying to study in 2020-21.¹⁰

Uni Connect, funded by the OfS, brings together 29 partnerships of universities, colleges and other local partners that offer activities, advice and information on the benefits and realities of going to university or college. The programme aims to increase the number of young people from underrepresented groups who go into higher education by focusing on local areas where higher education participation is lower than might be expected given the GCSE results of the young people who live there. Uni Connect partnerships have rapidly refocused some of their activity from long-term sustained outreach onto targeted IAG for Year 13 students who were due to start university or college in autumn 2020.

Online resources

Most universities and colleges have made static resources available on their websites for prospective students. These are resources that prospective students can access any time at their own pace, such as FAQs, virtual tours, videos of information talks and downloadable booklets or factsheets. Many universities have proactively contacted their applicants and offer holders by email or phone to direct them to these resources and let them know when any updates are published, especially to statements about starting term in September.

Collating this kind of information into one central hub may help prospective students navigate it more easily and find the information they need. Some universities and colleges have chunked content up by different student groups – like international or disabled students. This may help those students who are more likely to have extra questions about their own particular circumstances to access more easily the information that is most important to them. However, in collating information for applicants in this way, universities and colleges need to ensure that wider information is also drawn to students’ attention, particularly where this is necessary to ensure they have an accurate picture of the commitments a provider is, or isn’t, making.

UCAS has also created a dedicated site to provide students with information about coronavirus, including general support for students, mental health, qualification status and support around the application process.

Direct contact

Most universities and colleges have a team who can assist with specific questions from individual students, and have made contact details for these teams available prominently alongside other coronavirus content. This kind of support can be provided through online chat functions, email and telephone. Some have added specific coronavirus accounts to their Unibuddy profiles to encourage prospective students with concerns about the coming academic year to approach them directly. Through association with Unibuddy, UCAS is putting prospective students in touch with university ambassadors to find out more about what higher education is like, particularly if studying online.

Live events

Although some events have been unavoidably cancelled or postponed, most universities and colleges have been able to make some available in an online format. Virtual open, applicant and offer-holder days have very quickly become a hugely popular offering, and despite the challenges in running such events, there are potentially a number of advantages to this format:

1. Live content can often be recorded and shared online so that students who are unable to attend at the set time can watch back at a time that suits them.
2. Students who might normally be unable to attend open days far away from home because of the travel expenses may be more easily able to access virtual open days.
3. Parents and carers who may not have been able to get time off work to attend open days in person might now be able to play a more active role in this part of their child’s decision making process.

UCAS keeps a regularly updated list of virtual open days on its website.¹¹

Some universities and colleges have made higher education and careers fairs available online. These events are usually hosted by one institution but run in collaboration with others, and focus on advice about the whole higher education experience rather than on particular institutions. For example, Petroc College (a member of the Next Steps South West Uni Connect partnership) ran a virtual higher education fair in May which included a workshop about its own higher education provision, as well as talks on choosing subjects, student finance and student life from universities and colleges across south west England and south Wales.¹²

Some universities and colleges have identified potential safeguarding and data protection concerns around running video conferencing events where attendees have to sign in with personal accounts, especially where they are under 18. Similar safeguarding considerations affect any one-to-one activities.

The Sutton Trust has published top tips for online delivery, curated by its Pathways team who have recently moved all of their programming online.¹³ These include:

• making sure that timetabling is diverse and flexible to reflect the different user experience of attending online compared to face-to-face events
• completing risk assessments and developing safeguarding policies in tandem with making decisions about which technology platforms to use
• providing attendees with guides to sessions and the opportunity to pre-submit any questions for presenters ahead of time
• practising presentations, testing cameras and microphones, and deciding on any ‘housekeeping’ rules before sessions start.

Social media

Most universities and colleges are using their social media channels to engage with students who have accepted offers to study with them in 2020-21 and those who are holding offers but still making decisions. For example, the University of Sussex collected prospective students’ questions through an Instagram Live event, and subsequently published a video from a member of its recruitment team answering the top five.¹⁵

While social media can be an effective tool for direct conversations with prospective students, it is important to note that some international students who are still in their home countries may be barred from some channels or find it easier because of time differences to watch a recording later.

The role of UCAS

UCAS has direct links to 700,000 applicants and 10,000 advisers each cycle, and has been regularly communicating with this audience to ensure a high level of awareness of the current situation.

UCAS has enhanced its information, advice and guidance provision in response to school closures and changes to the process for awarding grades this year, to ensure that students understand how these factors may impact on their progression to higher education. UCAS has worked extensively with government departments and regulators across the UK to ensure that messages are relevant and personalised for students’ individual and diverse circumstances, and also works with key agencies, such as the Student Loans Company and access charities, to provide students with third party content. Last year, UCAS launched the UCAS Hub, a personalised, digital space that delivers this information and advice to students based on their preferences and context.

The navigation of the UCAS website has been revised to support the upsurge in virtual open days and events and to highlight UK-wide student finance content from the Student Loans Company and other relevant agencies. It has also held a series of Facebook Live events which have attracted an audience of around 100,000, involving key decision-makers like the Universities Minister Michelle Donelan MP as panellists.

The deadline for applicants to make decisions on any offers they are holding through UCAS has already been extended to allow them to take the time to properly assess their options and make the decision that is right for them.¹⁶ Clearing will go live on 6 July, and ordinarily there are over 35,000 courses available for students to review if they wish. UCAS has enhanced the Clearing system this year with the introduction of Clearing Plus, a service that matches unplaced students with relevant opportunities when they become unplaced. UCAS will offer a range of individual support, through email and social media and over the phone.

Conclusion

Prospective students are making extremely significant decisions about their future at a time of huge uncertainty. It has never been more important to ensure that they can access good information, advice and guidance. This briefing note has highlighted some of the ways that universities, colleges and third sector organisations are working in partnership to meet this need.