14 Wednesday January 19 2022 | the times
News
Personal statements on university
applications are barometers of middle-
class privilege and should be dropped, a
leading social mobility expert has said.
Lee Elliot Major, Britain’s first
professor of social mobility, said that a
“huge industry of advisers” was helping
more affluent teenagers with their
statements. He said that the 47-line
piece of writing was not fit for purpose
in admissions.
The head of Ucas, the admissions
service, has already suggested that the
format should be overhauled.
Elliot Major, an Exeter University
academic who advises the government
on education and social mobility, said:
“There is growing scepticism of their
[personal statements’] educational
Look this way An exhibition by the American artist Kaws at the Serpentine Gallery in London includes an animation of his sculpture that is viewed on a smartphone
End phonics
obsession,
urge experts
Nicola WoolcockThe government should end its decade-
long fixation with phonics as the only
way to teach children to read, academ-
ics say today.
The system means the vast majority
of young children in England are
taught by learning sounds and blending
them together. Most reading schemes
follow this method and children are
tested on their ability to decode the
sounds at the end of year 1.
However, University College
London academics say that the system
does not follow the best evidence. Their
paper, published today in the Review of
Education, includes the findings of an
analysis of 55 longitudinal trials and a
survey of 2,205 teachers in England.
They are among more than 250
people who have written to Nadhim
Zahawi, the education secretary,
calling for reforms to “centre on a wider
range of approaches and enable
teachers to use their own judgment
about which is best for their pupils”.
They also want teachers to focus
“first and foremost” on pupils making
sense of texts and say phonics teaching
should be linked to reading whole texts.TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLECall to scrap university personal statements
worth among admissions professionals
in universities and the statements have
become a systematic disadvantage to
poorer students.” He believes they
should be abandoned or replaced with a
set of specific questions. In addition,
universities should publish clear crite-
ria of what they want from candidates,
he suggests.
The 4,000-character personal state-
ment gives candidates the chance to
sell themselves to admissions tutors by
conveying their suitability for their
chosen course.
He added: “Studies of personal state-
ments have revealed a chasm in quality
and style between independent and
state school applicants. Independent
school applicants were more likely to
have well-written statements, with
fewer grammatical errors, while stateschool pupils struggled to draw on
suitable work and life experiences. The
time has come to ask fundamental
questions about their educational
worth and the unfairness they create.
“It is increasingly clear they are more
a reflection of how much support
candidates benefit from rather than
genuinely indicating an individual’s
passion for their subject.”
He said that the achievement gap
between independent and state schools
could be worsened by the pandemic
and increased competition for degrees.
Hundreds of thousands of personal
statements are written every year and a
team at Ucas has the job of detecting
plagiarism in personal statements.
Aneurin Lau, 22, a final year student
studying business management and
marketing at Nottingham Trent Uni-versity, said: “When I was applying to
university, the only thing I knew was to
put my experience and skills into the
personal statement, I had no idea how
to structure it better to make it more
specific for the course I was applying
for. When I was still in school, I did not
have the luxury of getting much
support on writing an outstanding per-
sonal statement for my university ap-
plications which left me clueless.”
Clare Marchant, the chief executive
of Ucas, said: “Reform of the personal
statement is absolutely in our plans. We
will be doing more to simplify the per-
sonal statement, providing more
support to students from disadvan-
taged backgrounds, and considering a
number of options to make it fairer.”
Statements reveal privilege not ability,
Thunderer, page 24Nicola Woolcock Education Editor Ucas’s top tips
6 Opening sentences As one
admissions tutor said: “Be succinct
and draw the reader in, but not with
a gimmick. This isn’t the X Factor.”
6 Avoid clichés These include
“From a young age.. .” and “I have
always been interested in.. .” and “I
have always enjoyed.. .”
6 Ditch inspirational quotes Tutors
don’t want to know what Nelson
Mandela thought — they want to
know what you think.
6 Get to the point Start with why
you chose the course. Be specific
from the first line and talk about
your enthusiasm for the subject.