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Cambridge University to introduce written admissions tests Cambridge University to introduce written admissions tests
(about 2 hours later)
Potential Cambridge students will have to sit written tests as part of their application in future, the university has announced. Cambridge University has been accused of making its application process potentially even more of a barrier to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds after announcing it is to introduce written tests for all applicants.
In a change to its admission system, the prestigious institution confirmed it was introducing written assessments, tailored to each subject, which will be taken by candidates either before or at their interview. The university argues it has had to introduce the new tests following the government’s A-level reforms which mean many students will not sit AS-levels which have traditionally helped universities to decide whether or not to offer a place.
The move will affect students applying for courses starting in autumn 2017 – when in a major overhaul of the exams system sixth-formers will sit the first batch of new GCSEs and A-levels in some subjects. But Alan Milburn, former Labour minister and chair of the Social Mobililty and Child Poverty Commission (SMCPC), criticised the move saying Cambridge risked raising further barriers to equal access with its new assessments. Other critics warned that pupils from richer backgrounds would inevitably use private tutoring to get through the tests, further disadvantaging poorer students.
Concerns about persistent underrepresentation of students from black and minority ethnic origins and disadvantaged backgrounds at Oxford and Cambridge were raised last weekend by the prime minister, who called on his almer mater, Oxford, to do more, pointing out that 27 black students out of a total of 2,500 went to his university in 2014.
Related: Oxford and Cambridge condemned over failure to improve state school accessRelated: Oxford and Cambridge condemned over failure to improve state school access
In a letter to UK schools and colleges, Dr Sam Lucy, the university’s director of admission, said the change would provide “valuable additional evidence of our applicants’ academic abilities, knowledge base and potential to succeed in the Cambridge course for which they have applied”. The SMCPC also raised the issue in December in its annual report which named and shamed individual Oxbridge colleges for their failure to increase the number of state school pupils studying at Oxbridge colleges
“This move is a result of responding to teacher and student feedback, a desire to harmonise and simplify our existing use of written assessments and a need to develop new ways to maintain the effectiveness and fairness of our admissions system during ongoing qualification reform,” Lucy added. Speaking of Cambridge’s new tests, which are set to be introduced for students seeking entry in the autumn of 2017, Milburn said the university’s plan to introduce entrance exams could be seen as a rational response to AS-levels being scrapped.
Cambridge University has been outspoken about a key plank of the government’s exams reforms – the decision to hive off AS-levels from A-levels to form a standalone qualification. “But looked at through the social mobility lens, it clearly has the potential to raise a further barrier to equal access. Bright students from less advantaged backgrounds tend to miss out on the intensive tutoring their better-off peers receive.”
It has argued that for admission to its courses, AS-levels are the best predictor of how well a student will perform in every subject except maths. Milburn said the admissions team at Cambridge needed to explain how they planned to ensure that the new tests would not add to that disadvantage. He also suggested there was an argument for considering delaying university applications until after A-level results.
In November 2014, it wrote to all schools and colleges urging teachers to continue to offer the qualification. “The prime minister has made clear that equality of opportunity is at the top of his priorities, and that universities are in his sights. Clearly, the government needs to redouble efforts to work with schools and universities to ensure that no bright youngsters fail for lack of coaching.
From summer 2017, sixth-formers will be sitting new A-level exams in some subjects, and existing A-levels in others. “There is now also a strong case for looking again at the arguments for delaying the university application process until after exam results. This would mean university applicants could be compared on actual results, and do away with the need for additional tests set by universities.”
In addition, while some schools and colleges will opt to keep one-year AS-levels and teach them alongside A-levels, others are set to drop the qualification to focus on the two-year qualifications. Cambridge has made no secret of its concerns at the government’s decision to “decouple” AS-levels from A-levels to form a stand-alone qualification. The net result is that while some schools and colleges will opt to keep one-year AS-levels and teach them alongside A-levels, others will drop the qualification to focus on the two-year courses.
Cambridge wrote to all schools and sixth forms in November 2014 urging them to keep the qualification, arguing that for admissions AS-levels are the best predictor of how well a student will perform in every subject except maths.
In a follow-up letter emailed to UK schools and colleges on Tuesday, Dr Sam Lucy, the university’s director of admissions, said the new tests would provide “valuable additional evidence of our applicants’ academic abilities, knowledge base and potential to succeed in the Cambridge course for which they have applied”.
The written assessments, tailored to each subject, will be taken by candidates either before interview, at their school or college, or actually at interview. Anticipating concern that critics will see them as a way of screening to decide who gets invited to interviews, Lucy said: “They will form part of our holistic assessment of applicants rather than being a stand-alone mechanism for interview selection.”
Pre-interview tests will be held in early November on the same day as Oxford, which already carries out its own written tests, and at-interview assessments will take place during the December interview period. “No advance preparation will be needed other than revision of relevant recent subject knowledge where appropriate,” Lucy said.
Courses with pre-interview written assessments include economics, English, history and natural sciencies; courses with at-interview written assessments include architecture, history of art, law and philosophy.
“This move is a result of responding to teacher and student feedback; a desire to harmonise and simplify our existing use of written assessments and a need to develop new ways to maintain the effectiveness and fairness of our admissions system during ongoing qualification reform,” Lucy said.
Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust educational charity which works to improve social mobility, welcomed any measure to simplify the admissions procedures at Oxbridge but issued a warning.
“Cambridge should be aware that tests could present a disadvantage for low and middle income students as there is a thriving market in private tuition for the extra admissions tests used at Oxford and Cambridge.”
Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Virtually everybody in education disagreed with the government’s decision to decouple AS-levels and A-levels, and one of the reasons was that AS- levels have been incredibly useful in predicting final A-level grades for university applications.
“Cambridge University’s decision to introduce written tests is clearly an attempt to fill the gap left by the government’s policy. Other universities will have to increasingly rely on predictions which are not guided by AS level results and this is obviously less satisfactory for everybody involved.”