Undergraduate Admissions Reform

Over the past three years, the Law Faculty’s Admissions Co-Ordinator has led a review of the Faculty’s Admissions systems. The Faculty engaged consultants to produce a detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis of our processes, and also worked with the Brilliant Club to explore ways to improve access. Faculty members were also surveyed on their views about reform via interviews, surveys and faculty meetings. These inputs were combined with analyses undertaken by the University’s central admissions office to produce a series of proposed reforms, which were debated at length within the Faculty. The final outcome of the review has been shift towards a more co-ordinated approach to admissions. From 2021, candidates will first be considered college-blind by a central shortlisting committee comprising representatives from the colleges. Colleges will then have a choice of which applicants on the shortlist they will interview, with those not selected being reallocated for interview elsewhere. The other key change is that all colleges will now undertake second interviews of candidates on the last day of admissions, giving many more candidates not selected by their first college a chance to be considered for a place elsewhere. These changes will see the Faculty working together in a much more co-ordinated way.