Wednesday, 18 March 2009

Short session on the demonstrator at UCAS' state school Service Advisory Group, 18 March 2009

The audience (about 8 schools representatives) had been briefed on EFIFA at their previous meeting, and this was an opportunity to show them the demonstrator and get reactions and comments. Note that the version of the demonstrator didn’t have the ‘student view’ section. The audience also had the opportunity to fill in response forms and to take them away, have a look again later and send responses by email.

There was a generally favourable reaction to the demonstrator. They thought it was very easy to use – and therefore wanted HEIs to provide feedback properly! They believed that it would be a very good method of giving feedback.

Specific comments were few:

(1) Reasons for rejection should be recorded as a matter of routine, and good practice, when a decision is made, and therefore with an electronic system to support this, there should be no reason why blanket feedback for unsuccessful applicants couldn’t be given.

(2) It was noted that almost all feedback now is given when the decisions are made. This type of system should support that approach.

(3) The ability for applicants to request feedback via UCAS Track was seen as important, and it might stimulate HEIs to put in place systems to satisfy the demand.

(4) The ability to give free text individualised feedback was seen as important.