06/09-10   -   Press releases

Admissions tutors “told what they want to hear" in applications

They are supposed to be a key aspect of the university admissions process: a chance for would-be students to say why they want to devote an important part of their life to studying at a particular institution. But ´personal statements´, in which applicants set out their reasons for choosing a university, are often not personal at all, as candidates simply repeat phrases from its website in an attempt to win favour with admissions tutors.

Furthermore, foreign students who say in their statements that British higher education is the best in the world may just be echoing advertising phrases deployed by the British Council.

Dr Jane Hemsley-Brown, of the University of Surrey, makes these conclusions following a study of applications for a postgraduate course at a leading, but unnamed, university business school. The findings are being presented at BERA’s annual conference.

A random sample of some 60 personal statements, submitted in 2005-6 and 2008-9, were analysed and compared to material appearing on the university’s website and on that of the British Council. They were also put through software designed to check for plagiarism.

Dr Hemsley-Brown found some striking similarities with website statements. One student applying in 2005-6 cited the university’s “global reputation for both teaching and research in this sector". The phrase matched exactly that which featured on the business school’s website, in a quotation from the course’s head of school. Another spoke of admiration that students would be helped to “develop their competencies for working in multi national and multi cultural environments". The business school’s website quoted its “multi-national and multi-cultural environment".

Another applicant, who professed to being “overwhelmed by the illustriousness and reputation of the [university’s] business school" said “I believe the University...will offer excellent teaching resources and facilities to students". The university’s website mentioned “excellent teaching resources and facilities".

Most of the applications were from abroad: only three were from British students, with nearly half - 25 - coming from China. Dr Hemsley-Brown noted that, in 2005-6, the British Council included a statement on its website helping to promote British universities that “UK institutions are among the best in the world".

Several applicants, at this time, mentioned the overall quality of British education, she found. However, by 2008-9, when it had ceased to appear on the British Council’s website, none of the personal statements referred to a British education as the “best in the world". Several did, however, use vocabulary used on the British Council website by that time to describe UK higher education, such as “highly regarded", “recognised" and “respected".

The study also identified one case, from plagiarism software, of what appeared to be outright copying from another source. A student praised the business school’s “outstanding faculty and research facilities, emphasis on a collaborative learning environment, flexibility in curriculum." The exact phase appeared on the website statementofpurpose.com.

“Personal statements provide an opportunity to give reasons [for choosing a university], but they tend to be the reasons the applicant might think the admissions tutors want to hear," Dr Hemsley-Brown, herself a former admissions tutor, concludes.

“Students in this study, from both cohorts, state that they are applying to a university because of reasons set out in the claims the advertisers make for that university (and for a British education).
“So, therefore it appears that the advertising slogans and strap lines become the reasons given for choice."

The results, she says, were surprising. She says: “We expected to find the applicants setting out individualised and personal reasons for choosing the university. “What we got was the university’s own admissions information quoted back at it."

Dr Hemsley-Brown adds that the lack of originality was disappointing as well as unexpected and could count against applicants, if detected, since it was a reflection on how they would approach their studies while at university.

Reality, parody or cliché? ‘The best education in the world’: international students’ reasons for choosing a UK university" is being presented by Jane Hemsley-Brown of the University of Surrey today (Thursday, September 2nd).

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