Spring Martlet 2017

ARE THERE ENOUGH STRONG
‘WIDENING PARTICIPATION’
CANDIDATES OUT THERE?
We’ve developed a scheme
which promotes widening
participation and which
works within the University’s
current admissions process
and competitive standards.
It takes students who have
already shown exceptional
ability and potential, and then
through an intensive bridging
programme gives them that
extra boost which other
students already benefit
from because of their school
and family background. In
offering new places, we’re
not reducing anyone else’s
chances of gaining a place at
Univ – we’re creating a new
opportunity for new students.
Sir Ivor Crewe, Master of
University College
This scheme is predicated on the assumption that there are good flagged students already in the
applicant pool who are missing out on offers. Is this in fact the case? University-wide, the answer is
certainly yes. Over the three years 2013-15, nearly a quarter of disadvantaged candidates who applied
to Oxford and were not made an offer went on to exceed the standard offer for their course by at
least one grade (e.g. A*AA for an AAA offer). Over the three years, there were almost 600 of these
students in total. That is not to suggest that every single student who goes on to exceed our conditional
offers should be admitted – we see many such students from all backgrounds every year and we reject
them for good reasons – but it does seem that there are quite a lot of candidates who apply from
disadvantaged backgrounds, who go on to achieve A Level results which are better than those of some
of the students whom we take, and yet are not admitted. To the extent that it is possible to identify them
at time of application, these are the students whom this scheme seeks to target.
In the three years 2013 – 15, Univ received 127 applications from candidates with two or more flags
and 67 applications from candidates with three or more flags. Of the 127 applicants with two flags, 69
(54.3%) were shortlisted and 30 (23.6%) received an offer. Of the 67 applicants with three flags, 44
(65.7%) were shortlisted and 23 (34.3%) received an offer. This compares with an overall average for
UK-schooled applicants of 51.4% being shortlisted and 26.8% receiving offers. This is all in the noise, but
it does at least show that there are good flagged candidates out there, and that Univ already has a fair
few flagged applicants who are deemed worthy of shortlisting but who do not currently receive offers.
Taking the university-wide data on A Level performance together with the College data on numbers of
applicants, we can be confident that we are very likely to have a decent number of flagged applicants
worthy of considering seriously for a place on the proposed scheme, and that’s without taking account
of any additional strong applicants whom the scheme attracts.
12 THE MARTLET | SPRING 2017