LSE Undergraduate Admissions and Widening Participation
The London School of Economics and Political Science has been recognised for its work on widening access and admissions at this year’s Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards, which took place on Thursday 21 June 2018.
The 2018 ‘THELMAs’ – celebrating their 10th anniversary – recognise outstanding work across management, the professional services and administration of UK universities.
The LSE Undergraduate Admissions team won the award for Excellence in Registry Services following the introduction of a system which has enabled the School to widen access by including social and educational contextual factors as part of its holistic decision-making process.
LSE attracts more than 20,000 applicants for its 1,500 undergraduate places each academic year. Using a flagging system that included social metrics such as postcodes as well as educational achievement, they were able to assess academic performance within a much wider context.
This flagging system has led to an immediate improvement on all the metrics commonly used to measure success in widening access, and further improvement across subsequent application cycles. The clearest evidence came from a notable rise in the number of offers to and places taken up by applicants who come from backgrounds that make them least likely to attend higher education.
The School’s achievements were highlighted last year by the independent thinktank Reform, which suggested that if other universities made the same progress as LSE in 2015-16 alone, there would be more than 3,500 extra students from widening participation backgrounds to high tariff universities.
The THELMA judges were impressed by the School’s “…innovative use of socio-economic flagging to support a more positive approach to widening participation”.
“Through improved use and presentation of an applicant’s contextual information, selectors are able to make more informed decisions to ensure fair and more equal consideration is given to applicants,” they added.
Commenting on the award, LSE Undergraduate Admissions Manager Alex Ingold said:
“We are delighted to win this award. It is a testament to all of the thoughtfulness, creativity and professionalism that the Undergraduate Admissions team brings to their work and I am very proud of everything we have achieved. The work continues, and we remain fully committed to continue to widen access to LSE and to help the most disadvantaged young people in our society obtain the education they deserve. “