College of Humanities and Social Science Recruitment and Admissions Strategy Committee Wednesday 6 February 2013, 11.30 to 13.30, Room G1, 55 G Square Draft Minutes Present Suzanne Ewing (CHSS Associate Dean, Admissions Strategy) – Convener Dr Paul Foster – Divinity Dr Richard Freeman – Social and Political Science Alan Murray - Edinburgh College of Art (attending in place of Stuart Bennett) Donald George – Economics Dr Neill Martin - Literatures, Languages and Cultures Dr Alex Weiss - Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences John Cavani – Communications and Marketing Sarah Colegrove – Communications and Marketing Rebecca Gaukroger – Student Recruitment and Admissions Robbie Willis – International Office Janet Rennie – CHSS Director of Academic and Student Administration Rick Kiralfy - Head of CHSS Postgraduate Office Amanda Lund (CHSS Undergraduate Admissions Officer, in place of Cameron Murdoch) Anna Conroy (CHSS Academic Support Officer) Cindy Stubbs (CHSS Deputy Head of Academic Affairs) Tom Ward (CHSS Head of Student Experience) – Secretary to the Committee Apologies Stuart Bennett - Edinburgh College of Art Sandra Eden – Law Dr Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones - History, Classics and Archaeology Mike Lynch - Education Cameron Murdoch – CHSS Head of Undergraduate Admissions Office Dr Sarah Cooper / Dr Susan Dunnett – Business School Dr Graeme Smith – Health in Social Science FORMAL BUSINESS 1 Minute of meeting 3 December 2012 Approved subject to correction of minor typo on p3. UPDATES ON RECRUITMENT AND ADMISSIONS MATTERS 2 Update on recruitment and admissions matters The Committee noted Paper 12. Amanda Lund summarised the current position regarding applications and offers for undergraduate programmes, noting that the College’s applications have increased by 1 about 10% on the previous year (compared to a 3.5% increase for the sector as a whole), with all Schools having increased their numbers of applications. Rick Kiralfy updated the Committee regarding the PGT Sustainability Review, noting that he will be presenting a paper to the College Postgraduate Studies Committee’s next meeting on 20 February 2013. Tom Ward noted that in the near future Student Recruitment and Admissions (SRA) will be writing to teachers to inform them of the removal of the College’s standard entry requirement for a language other than English. He encouraged School representatives to circulate the briefing document (attached as an Annex to Paper 12) to their colleagues, so that they are aware of the changes. UNDERSTANDING PROCESSES AND PRACTICES 3 Visiting Student Recruitment in CHSS (Alex Baker, Head of Visiting Student Office, CHSS) Alex Baker provided the Committee with an overview of patterns of Visiting Student recruitment to the College, and of the Office’s recruitment and student support roles, and its role in supporting out-going students. Alex circulated a paper summarising these arrangements. She highlighted the following: The number of UG VS in the College has increased considerably in recent years; In general, the trend in demand from incoming VS is moving towards shorter periods of study (eg single semester rather than full-year); The VSO is happy to work with Schools that would like to increase their VS numbers (simple actions such as creating more attractive course titles can make a big difference); The US remains the College’s largest VS market, though there is increased interest from China, South Korea and Japan; There is increased interest in PGT VS. Committee members asked the following questions: Do many UG Visiting Students return to the University as PG students? Alex advised that this does happen, but that it is difficult to quantify. Returning VS are entitled to an alumni discount. How does the Personal Tutor system apply to VS? Alex indicated that the VSO arranges for all VS to have a PT, and that the VSO acts as the student support team. The Committee thanked Alex for a very helpful presentation. 2 FORMAL AND STRATEGIC MATTERS 4 Postgraduate taught student recruitment Rick Kiralfy introduced this discussion by delivering a Powerpoint presentation regarding patterns of applications, offers and entrants to the College’s PGT programmes. The Committee thanked Rick for his presentation and made the following comments: Given that a high proportion of applications do not result in an accepted offer or entrant, it would be helpful to minimise the staff time involved in considering weak applications. Options include: o Introducing an application fee (SPS introduced this in the current cycle, but is not yet in a position to evaluate the impact); o Helping prospective applicants to make a realistic assessment of their likelihood of receiving an offer (SRA has tried self-assessment approaches before, but found it very difficult at PGT level due to the wide range of different entry qualifications); o Filtering out applications that do not meet minimum requirements. The PGO / Schools should do more to nurture offer-holders to encourage them to accept their offers. Schools / PGO could focus more resources on engaging with strong applicants who declined our offers, given that the decliners’ survey suggests that a significant minority of decliners regret not studying at the University. Historically, PGT recruitment has been in some respects counter-cyclical (in that demand increases during economic down-turns). However, this pattern appears to be beginning to change, possibly due to the unusual nature and length of the current economic down-turn, and to the levels of debt that the current generation of undergraduate students have accumulated. It may be appropriate to consider whether it is necessary to ask applicants for two references. In many cases, references add little or no evidence to that already provided in transcripts. Compared to many Universities, Edinburgh is unusual in asking for two references. The following Schools then provided overviews of their PGT recruitment and conversion activities: Literatures, Languages and Cultures o Taking account of changes in the market (eg Victorian literature is currently very popular); o Various activities to build the community of offer-holders and entrants, for example active use of Facebook for incoming students; o Online recruitment chatrooms (more effective for offer-holders than applicants); 3 o Taking steps to enhance the School’s website Edinburgh College of Art o Consolidating quality at PGT level rather than significant expansion; o Launching a new website in August 2013 (this will be very different from a lot of the University’s websites, in taking a bottom-up approach to academic content). Divinity o Staff invest a lot of time in direct contact with prospective students (eg attending recruitment events, communicating via email or Skype); o Scholarship funds are not generating as much income as they had in the past. Economics – summarised the points covered in the Annex to Paper 13 Social and Political Science - summarised the points covered in the Annex to Paper 13 The Committee also noted the summaries of Law and HCA’s PGT recruitment activities set out in Paper 13. 5 Undergraduate conversion activities Conversion communications plan Guidance for Schools on Post Offer Visit Days Amanda Lund introduced the conversion communications plan set out in Paper 14. She emphasised that, while the volume of UG applications for CHSS programmes is higher in 2013 than in 2012, the College cannot assume that this will automatically convert into the right number of entrants. It therefore remains important for the College / Schools to undertake conversion activities. The Committee welcomed the conversion plan and made the following comments: Student Recruitment and Admissions is undertaking work on coordinating University-level communications to applicants and offer-holders. This would complement the conversion plan that the College and CAM have created. Communications and marketing work is one part of the roles of many staff in Schools. Some Schools are developing management structures to help them to coordinate conversion and recruitment work that many staff are contributing to. For example, in one School the Head of School convenes a group. Offer-holders value communications from the subject area. However, there needs to be some flexibility regarding how Schools approach this, since in some areas the communication could include ‘School-level’ messages (for example, in ECA), whereas in other areas it should focus on the programme or subject-level. College / Schools / CAM face similar issues in converting offers into entrants at PG level. However, while the UG admissions cycle has clear phases defined by specific dates and gathered fields, this is not the case at PG level. 4 The Committee was content with the draft guidance for subject areas regarding Post Offer Visit Days, though it noted that the POVs were being coordinated by Anna ‘Conroy’ not ‘Conway’. 6 Summer Schools Alex Baker introduced Paper 15, which set out various issues that Schools should consider if developing plans for Summer Schools. She noted that there was definitely potential for income generation from Summer Schools, and that Summer Schools could also encourage students to return to PG study at the College. She emphasised the importance of Schools developing strong QA and business plans for Summer Schools, since they could have a significant positive or negative impact on the University’s reputation. 7 Results of 2012 Entrant Surveys The Committee agreed to postpone this discussion until its next meeting. 8 Postgraduate Taught Visiting Students Janet Rennie reported that senior University staff were proposing that the University expand the number of incoming full-fee single-semester (probably semester one) visiting PGT students. She asked Schools representatives to consult with their colleagues regarding these proposed developments, with a view to discussing the issue at the Committee’s next meeting. Janet agreed to circulate a brief paper to Committee members to assist them with their consultation. FOR INFORMATION 9 International student recruitment – upcoming International Office recruitment trips The Committee noted Paper 17. 10 Contacts in Colleges and support services The Committee noted Paper 18. 11 Reports from Schools (oral item) There were no reports. 12 Dates of future meeting: Wednesday 13 March 2013, 11.30 to 13.30, Room G1, 55 G Square 5