UCAS propose university application shake-up

UCAS has revealed plans to change the way students in the UK apply to higher education in what is the biggest overhaul of the system for 50 years.

The admissions service intends to make progression routes to higher education "more varied and flexible" and less confusing for prospective students to apply.

Currently, applicants from Scottish schools apply in their 6th year after obtaining qualifications in 5th year. A number of these students are made conditional offers from university courses and admission relies on achieving certain grades in their 6th year exams. The new system would allow these students to wait until they have received all of their higher grades before applying.

The change would require exams and marking periods to be brought forward. In Scotland the marking period would be halved from 8 weeks to 4 weeks and university courses would begin in mid-October.

A spokesperson for UCAS told The Journal the benefits of the proposal: "The applicant experience would be improved as information would be ‘pushed’ to applicants at key points in the process and the application process itself would be more straightforward to navigate.

“The current system has 9.3 million transactions … all these transactions are needed to place 410,000 applicants. The proposed model would significantly reduce the number of transactions that would take place, with the ability to make the process less confusing for applicants."

Due to the scale of change the new system will not be implemented until at least four years from now: "We believe it would be neither possible nor desirable to move to a process of application post results before the 2016 year of admission at the earliest… Any changes to the system would have to take place over time and would need to be carefully managed."

However, plans are still in the proposal stage and require the backing of the other bodies involved if the system is to go ahead. A spokesperson for Heriot-Watt University said: "The current UCAS suggestions come in a consultation paper, and are likely to see changes and revisions before any potential implementation.

"We would certainly welcome the review's stated aim of making the application system as simple, transparent and fair as possible. The system needs to be one that meets the needs of a wide range of applicants, including mature students, international students, part-time students as well as school leavers applying for full-time degrees, and any moves towards making the system as accessible as possible would be welcome.

"While supportive of UCAS’ aims, we will be working with Universities Scotland to examine the details of the proposals very carefully over the coming months."

In the short term, UCAS intends to enhance efficiency in the current system before bringing about drastic changes.