Oxford University access activity sees results

UNIQ summer schools
Applications from UNIQ Summer School participants for entry 2012/deferred entry 2013:

Quotes from students who came on the first UNIQ summer school (2010) and are now in their first year at Oxford:

Katherine Birse, who attended UNIQ in 2010 and now studies Medicine at Oxford, says: “I had such a fantastic time at UNIQ, I couldn't wait to apply for real. Oxbridge has always had a sort of aura around it that makes it seem out of reach, but after I attended UNIQ I knew it was the place where I wanted to study and that I had a realistic chance of getting in. The preparation UNIQ gave me for my application made me feel a lot more comfortable about the whole process."

Jonathan Sanders, another UNIQ student now studying English, agrees: “Oxford was completely alien, then completely natural, and UNIQ was integral to the transformation. UNIQ revealed what an atmosphere of intellectual ambition is like. For someone like myself who was brought up in such different surroundings, actually experiencing this atmosphere uncovered potential I couldn't believe existed."

Peter Blenkharn, who also attended UNIQ and is now an Engineering student at Oxford  adds: “Having just completed my first term at St John's College, the UNIQ summer school seems an age away. Without the experience of the undergraduate lifestyle that UNIQ gave me, I might never have applied to Oxford and would have missed out on the wealth of opportunity. UNIQ completely removed all of the stereotypes of Oxford, leaving a friendly, challenging environment where everyone is encouraged to strive for more."

Oxford for many years ran summer schools through the Sutton Trust, and in 2010 thanks to a major donation launched a new summer school called UNIQ, which takes students from UK state schools who have strong academic backgrounds and allows them to attend a week-long summer school where they get a chance to study subjects in depth and learn what living and studying at Oxford is like.

In 2010, the first UNIQ summer school offered 507 students the opportunity to try one of twenty different subjects. The number of students on the summer school will rise each year to reach 1,000 places by 2014. It is anticipated that every undergraduate course will eventually be represented on the summer school. This is a particularly effective way of introducing state school students to subjects they may have never experienced before.

The UNIQ selection process is intended to identify the highest performing students in any given state school.

• Applications are ranked according to a contextualised A* count at GCSE. The contextualisation takes into account the school attended at GCSE (in terms of academic attainment of the GCSE cohort as a whole) and the school attended for A levels (in terms of both academic attainment and progression rates to Oxford). Students who have outperformed their peer group at GCSE, and who attend A level schools with few applications to Oxford, will be at an advantage.
• The applicant’s socio-demographic postcode data is also taken into consideration – candidates from socio-economically deprived neighbourhoods are at an advantage
• Students in care are flagged by the application system for special consideration. 
  

In total, 2,898 offers were made to UK candidates for 2012 (or deferred entry 2013), and 973 of those candidates (34%) are in one or more of the target groups outlined in Oxford’s Access Agreement with OFFA – that is, they come from a socio-economically deprived postcode; they come from a neighbourhood with low progression onto higher education; they come from a school where few people attain top grades and which has historically low progression to Oxford; and/or they have a disability.
 
Applicants and offers by Access Agreement target for entry 2012/deferred entry 2013:

[NB: these figures add up to more than the totals meeting one or more category, as some applicants come under more than one target] 

The Access Agreement targets are:

1) Increasing the proportion of UK undergraduate students at Oxford from schools and colleges which historically have had limited progression to Oxford:

We will work with the group of schools and colleges where 30 or fewer students achieve AAA over a three-year period (i.e. an average of 0-10 students per year achieve AAA), but where there is limited historical success in putting forward successful candidates for Oxford.  The target is to increase the proportion of UK students coming from this group of schools and colleges from 21.5% currently to 25% by 2016-17.

There are nearly 2,300 such schools and colleges in the UK. Given the relatively low number of top-achieving students, these schools are less likely to be equipped to encourage and support students in their Oxford applications - which is where the colleges and University can play a role.

We aim to encourage applications from such schools and to give information and guidance on the selection process and how to make competitive applications. We also want to ensure that students and particularly teachers understand the selection system and what it is assessing. Finally, we want to provide students from these schools with opportunities to get to know Oxford and become familiar with exploring academic ideas. The UNIQ summer schools we offer, for example, are a good way to do this, as is working with teachers in those schools.

2) Increasing the proportion of UK undergraduate students at Oxford from socio-economically disadvantaged areas:

We aim to increase the proportion of UK students coming from ACORN postcodes 4 and 5 (i.e. the least advantaged areas in the UK), from 6.1% currently to 9% by 2016-17.

[The ACORN dataset is used to determine socio-economic disadvantage at a postcode level. ACORN stands for ‘A Classification Of Residential Neighbourhoods’. It is a geodemographic information system categorising all UK postcodes into one of five broad types, based on census data and other information. Data on a whole range of factors including job type, education level, property type and unemployment feed in to the categorisation. It is used in marketing as well as being used widely for public policy and planning. The ACORN categories 4 and 5 (‘moderate means’ and ‘hard pressed’) are those on which Oxford will focus.]

3) Increasing the proportion of UK undergraduate students at Oxford from neighbourhoods with low participation in higher education:

We aim to increase the proportion of UK students coming from POLAR 2 quintiles 1 and 2 (the postcode areas with the lowest rates of progression to higher education, representing the 40% of school leavers least likely to progress to higher education), from 9.4% currently to 13% by 2016-17.

[The POLAR 2 postcode dataset is used by the government and HEFCE for identifying low participation in higher education. POLAR – ‘Participation Of Local Areas’ - is a series of maps showing the participation of young people in higher education for different geographical areas. The data is based on the proportion of young people in an area who go on to enter higher education aged 18 or 19. The POLAR maps and data sets show how the chances of young people entering higher education vary by where they live. The data is broken down into 5 groups (quintiles). Quintile 1 represents the fifth of areas with the lowest participation rates in higher education. Quintile 5 has the highest. Oxford is interested in quintiles 1 and 2, in other words the 40% of school leavers least likely to progress to higher education. For more information on POLAR, including FAQs, see: www.hefce.ac.uk/widen/polar/]

4) Meeting the HEFCE benchmark on disabled students at Oxford:

The HEFCE benchmark for 2010/11 and 2011/12 are not yet known, although these are areas where we have comfortably met or exceeded the targets in previous years, including last year’s benchmark of 3.2% of the undergraduate population.

The close and supportive collegiate system and highly personalised method of education makes Oxford a good place for students with disabilities. We will go on supporting them in coming here, and invest more in supporting them during their course.

Oxford’s full Access Agreement is at
www.admin.ox.ac.uk/media/global/wwwadminoxacuk/localsites/educationcommittee/documents/Oxford_University_OFFA_Agreement.pdf

Use of contextual data 

The way contextual data is used relates to, but is not identical to, the Access Agreement targets.

In 2011 for entry 2012, the flagging system resulted in 573 additional candidates being shortlisted for interview, of whom 185 won offers.

In 2010 for 2011 entry, the flagging system resulted in 366 additional candidates being shortlisted for interview, of whom 106 won offers.

In 2009 for 2010 entry, the flagging system resulted in 283 additional candidates being shortlisted for interview, of whom 83 won offers.

How the system works:

The Undergraduate Admissions Office collates contextual information centrally for all UK Oxford applicants. The aspects of data looked at are:

Prior Education
-A candidate gets a ‘tick’ if their school performs below the national average at GCSE and/or A-level

Socio-economic circumstance
-A candidate gets a ‘tick’ if their postcode is in ACORN groups 4 or 5, the least advantaged areas

- A candidate gets a ‘tick’ if their postcode is in POLAR quintiles 1 and 2, the areas with least progression to higher education

Care status
-A candidate gets a ‘tick’ if they have been in care for more than three months
 
One ‘tick’ is not enough: A candidate is flagged (strongly recommended) for interview if the contextual information for both prior education and socio-economic circumstance is flagged, or in care is flagged, and that candidate meets academic requirements including an AAA prediction.

• We are committed to giving all applicants a chance to show their full potential at interview. The aim is to help identify genuine aptitude.
• All applicants must still meet stringent academic requirements in order to get an interview, including an AAA prediction at A-level.
• The flagging process applies to shortlisting for interview only. Admission to Oxford is, and will remain, on merit.
• The reason that flagging may help ‘catch’ some candidates who would not otherwise have secured an interview is that AAA is a necessary but not sufficient requirement for an interview.  Over 33,000 students a year get AAA nationally, and most of our 17,000 applicants will be predicted AAA. Many ‘flagged’ candidates will be up against people who are not only predicted AAA but also have straight A* grades at GCSE, or who scored top marks in the subject-specific aptitude tests.
  

[NB: these figures add up to more than the total meeting one or more category, as some applicants come under more than one target] 

Applications from UNIQ Summer School participants:

Application statistics by school type (UK students only):

 * NB: For 2012 entry only offer figures are available, rather than final acceptances.