- Hello, and welcome to this UCAS video

on personal statements.

My name is Paul Drinkwater
and my role at Southampton

is a Schools Liaison Officer,

so I work with students,
parents and teachers

on a range of pastoral support.

I've worked within higher
education for over 15 years

and have previous admissions experience.

So in this video I'll talk to
you about some of my top tips

for helping your students with
their personal statements,

and please feel free to
contact me with any questions.

Thanks very much.

So welcome to this video
on supporting your students

with their personal statements.

What I'm going to do
over the next 30 minutes

is talk a little bit about
the application process.

I want to talk about why the
application is so important.

I'll talk about what to include
in the personal statement,

give you some tips on
how students can enhance

their personal statement,

and finish with some tips on writing

the personal statement as well.

In terms of broad application deadlines,

you should hopefully be aware
of that very early deadline

for applying to Oxford or Cambridge

or medicine or veterinary science.

For all other courses,
the deadline is around

the 15th of January.

Now, universities are
well within their rights

to stop accepting
applications after that date,

but these days it's more
common that actually,

universities would continue to probably

consider applications after that deadline.

Students can apply up to five choices

and I would urge them to do that,

even if they come to you dead
set on a particular course

or a particular university that they know

they want to go to.

I think it's important that
they do spread their choices

across five institutions,

and again they may be interested in

English or English with French
at a particular institution.

But again, they wouldn't
need to apply twice.

Often, once an application gets to us,

if a student then changes
their mind about the particular

nuance of the course,

we can move that form around internally

and make the decision on that.

Some courses, most medicine
and some law courses,

have entrance tests as well.

So hopefully by the end of March,

most of your students
should have heard back

from universities, hopefully with offers.

Now, sometimes they'll get rejected,

and for some students
this can be the first time

that they have been formally rejected

and you'll have to get used to
kind of dealing with students

who come to you perhaps having
had some of those rejections,

and normally by the end
of April, May, June,

depending on when they
put their application in,

that is when they start
to decide on their first

and their second choice.

Now, I want to side
step just for a moment,

because I think this
is an important issue,

that your students are aware of.

You know, traditionally
what students used to do

is make their first choice on target

with their predicted grades, you know,

if they were predicted a kind of A-B-B,

their first choice would be
an A-B-B type institution.

And their second choice, you know,

five, 10 years ago, would
be that easy backup,

if it all went horribly wrong,

then they've found an
institution that wants,

you know, B-C-C.

Well in some ways I think those days

are starting to disappear.

I would imagine most of
your students want to go

to the best university that they can do.

So there's nothing wrong in kind of

flipping that scenario around,

nothing wrong I think with having a

particularly aspirational
choice if they wish

for their first choice,

and more of a solid backup, you know,

that A-B-B choice as their second,

and their second choice
should still be somewhere that

they'd be really happy to go,

and enjoy studying.

And obviously in
traditional circumstances,

August is when we have results
confirmation and clearing.

In terms of the application process,

I think it's important that
your students are either, look,

there are likely to be differences from

not only university to university,

but department to department.

It's fair to say that
our English academics

and admissions teams pore
over the punctuation,

grammar and spelling more than say,

our maths department does.

So yes, every institution will do things

slightly differently,

and have weighting on different things.

But the personal statement is used

in conjunction with a range
of other factors as well.

Southampton and many
of the universities use

what's called contextual data,

so this is certain indicators that tell us

more about each student's potential,

their potential to join us
and do really really well.

Southampton has by no means
got the magic formula,

but what we do do,

is use the information
that's available to us

to make again, a broader,
better understanding

of a student's potential.

We're currently revising this,

but you can read our contextual data,

admissions policy on our website.

So why is the personal statement

so important to your students,

why do many students and parents

get worked up about it?

Well, for the majority
of courses in the UK,

there won't be any kind
of formal interview.

So your students won't be able to

wow subject specialists with their

knowledge or charm or with their charisma.

For the majority of courses,

we don't have the manpower and the time

to individually interview
every application.

So for the majority of courses,

it's likely to come down
to their application

and their personal statement.

For those that do tend to interview,

often your health sciences, your medicine,

your nursing, your midwifery,

where they're looking for more
than just academic ability,

then often the personal statement is used

as part of the kind of core questioning.

That's what we all use to
kind of get the ball rolling

on our medicine days, for example.

I think the reality for
most students is that

most of them will be
applying with very similar

academic portfolios to students
up and down the country,

and really the personal
statement is the one tool

that universities have at our disposal

to decide, look, who are we
going to make these offers to

for some of these, in some instances,

very competitive courses.

Students should view this
as an electronic interview.

So what are admissions teams looking for?

Well, before we go any further,

I think let's be clear that now
the majority of universities

admissions isn't necessarily
done by academics.

I am sure there are still
some small departments

and institutions and areas that, yes,

academics will be heavily involved on a

singular level making
decisions about forms.

But for the majority of universities,

admissions now is a big
centralised function,

involving an awful lot of members of staff

who are trained, whose
full time job it is to be

reading and processing and
making decisions on applications.

So, this idea that an admissions staff

is sat in their office
with a big pile of forms

making decisions on their own,

I think is highly unlikely
in this day and age.

Certainly from my experience,
having worked in admissions,

my first scan of that form
would look at the accuracy,

it would look at their choice of A-levels

and their predicted grades.

Would be looking at GCSEs, again.

We know that there can be
an increase and a step up

from GCSEs to A-level.

That's fine, I think
what we're looking for

is a kind of natural progression.

If a student had a bunch
of Ds and Es at GCSE,

and suddenly had been predicted three A*s,

we would probably call that into question.

So, there's nothing wrong
in looking for kind of

academic trajectory.

And of course we will use
the personal statement

and all these things alongside

the reference from yourselves
or your colleagues.

Now, crucially, you know,

students shouldn't fall foul early on,

they shouldn't get rejected
because they didn't check

the A-level requirements,

or because they didn't see
that the economics course

needs maths, or they didn't see that

the engineering courses
needed maths and physics.

Most of that information is
clear, open and transparent,

either on the UCAS website or
the university's own website.

But you can help them, you know,

you have a similar amount
of space to write your

academic reference and between
yourselves and the students

you can cover an awful lot of information,

so you can talk a little
bit about their performance

in their post-16 education.

You can talk about why
you think they're really

suited to higher education,

you might talk about why they think

the course that they've chosen

is really really good for them.

If you've been teaching
them for a long time,

if you work at an institution where,

you know, you've been teaching
them before their A-levels,

you're likely to know these
students really really well,

so you can really talk about
the kind of personal qualities

that they've been developing
and how you've seen them change

over the years.

So you can cover some of
the kind of academic stuff

that perhaps leaves students
a bit more time and space

to talk about the other things
about the subject as well.

So you can cover quite a lot of ground

between the two statements.

Really though, the personal
statement needs to be showing

that student's motivation and
commitment to the subject.

It needs to be showing that
they're suitable for the course,

and obviously as admissions staff,

we are comparing them to
all the other applications

up and down the country.

So what we're really looking for is

students that are well rounded, you know,

certainly this is from my experience,

if they're looking to apply to somewhere

like Oxford and Cambridge, then yes,

that is likely to be very different.

They're probably not interested
in the stuff in blue here,

they're far more interested in
the academics sort of things.

But I think for most universities,

we want to know that students
are ready academically

and socially for that
challenge of higher education.

So we'll want to know the reasons

why they've chosen that course.

We'll want to know about
subject skills that they have,

but we'll want to know about
their motivation and commitment

and the things that they
do in their spare time.

Now, I've been challenged on this.

I've done this talk on our open days

and I've had a student
come up to me and say,

"Well, I'm not coming to
Southampton to make friends

"and join clubs and societies

"and go out on the town.

"I'm here to learn about the subject,

"and you're making it sound that if I

"don't talk about these things,

"I'm going to be at a disadvantage,"

and it really threw me,
and I said, "Well look,

"we've got 25,000
students at Southampton."

I said, "Are you really
telling me you don't feel

"you'd be able to find other students

"that you could connect with and

"you would have the same
interests and fears and ideas

"that you do."

So I do stick by this idea.

Of course, you know, you will have a broad

range of students that you deal with.

Some that will be very
charismatic and engaging

and get on with lots of people.

And others that aren't so,

and that was very much
how I felt at university.

I think what I'm saying is that,

students will need some of those skills

to adjust to university life.

The last thing we want students to do

is to lock themselves away in their rooms

and feel that they can't
meet like-minded individuals.

So, I think we need to
know that they've got

some of those skills to deal
with that change of life

in going to university.

So the students don't have an
awful lot of space to do this.

You will know probably that, you know,

this is less than a side of A4,

and my general advice is that, look,

a bulk of this personal
statement should be on

the academic side of things.

They should spend the
bulk of their time talking

about the subject.

So in terms of an introduction,

one of the things I see often at schools

is that I'll come in and do a talk

and then they move them
straight on to a computer room

and say, "Right, well
you've heard from Paul,

"now this afternoon we're going to start

"on the personal statement."

And they'll all sit there at the computers

with the cursor flashing thinking,

"Right, okay, here we go.
Let's write this thing."

Now, personally, I don't
think that's the best way

to go about trying to write
the personal statement,

sitting there with the cursor flashing,

trying to draw up inspiration
probably isn't going to

be the way that most students get the

personal statement started.

What they should probably do

is go away and think a little bit about

their personal trigger.

What is it that's really
sparked this curiosity in them?

If they can say to you, as
teachers and career staff,

"Well, I've always
wanted to study chemistry

"since I was four,"

then, okay, they can probably
go away and write that.

But I was probably more interested in Lego

when I was four, so,

they need to think about, look,

where has this interest come from?

If they've really only thought
about mechanical engineering

in the last six months,
that's absolutely fine,

but at least they can talk
more personally about, well,

what was it that set them on that path?

Was it that school trip?

Was it that speaker that came in?

Was it a documentary on Channel 4?

What was it that's really
sparked their curiosity?

They should also think about
what's going on in society

and in current affairs.

When we talk about the
Russell Group of Institutions

like Southampton and these
research-led institutions,

well, what we actually
mean by that is that, look,

you will be working alongside academics,

looking at these current
and future problems

facing us all as a society.

And as students we'll want
you to be part of that

problem-solving.

So they should think about
what is going on in the world,

what are the things that excite them,

that frustrate them,
that they're fearful of,

and how they want to be a
part of making the world

a better place.

They can also think about mentioning

some of the things that they're
looking forward to studying.

It shows us that, look,
we're not expecting you

to join us as a fully formed
biochemist or historian,

that there's nothing wrong in you saying,

"Well I've kind of only dabbled
in this with my A-levels,

"but it's something that
I'm really interested in

"finding out more about."

So I'm going to try and
avoid using examples,

I don't think it's going to
be useful if I bombard you

with lots of examples and say well,

"Here's a good personal statement

"and here's a bad personal statement."

I think that then creates
this idea that there is

this template that they
need to be working to,

and I don't believe that's the case.

But this idea of personal insight

is really really important.

So in this example here,

the student applying for
English has mentioned several

authors that they've
apparently read and digested

and understood.

But I would argue statements like this,

"These novels capture the disaffection

"many people experience
with their society.

"These authors also convey this sense of

"social dislocation."

(blows raspberry)

Well I would say, look,

that tells me nothing
about your understanding

of social dislocation either
at the time of this writing

or now, in the 21st Century.

What this student might
have been better off doing

is picking maybe one
or two of these authors

and talking in much more detail about

why they were drawn to them,

what their understanding
of social dislocation was.

Do they agree with it?

Has it reinforced their own opinions?

Has it taken them off in a new direction?

That's what I mean by personal insight.

Really delving into a particular topic,

in much more detail.

Now, your students may come to you

with five or six amazing things

that they'd love to put
in their application.

The reality is they won't
have the space to do that.

What they've probably got the space to do

is pick out maybe two
or three of these topics

and really talk about
them in much more detail.

We're not looking for a list here.

We're not looking for a list
of books that have been read,

or journals that have been read,

or films that have been watched.

That doesn't tell us about
why they want to study

the particular subject.

So, spending a bit of time on that,

going beyond just a list,

really reflecting on the
things that they've done,

outside of their A-levels.

Trips, books, wider
reading, documentaries.

Again, they should really
talk about why these things

have stood out to them.

If they've done anything extracurricular

or super-curricular, again,

don't just list these things off.

If you have got students
that are very active,

they'll really need to
go back and reflect on

some of the things that they've done,

and draw out the skills.

If some of your students have a particular

career aspiration,

they know that they want to
go and join the police force,

or do a particular career,

I think that's fine to mention.

I mean those career
choices will often change.

That is the beauty, I
think, of higher education,

that it will open them up
to a variety of careers,

but there's nothing wrong
I think in mentioning

that as well.

So, again, taking the time to draw out

those additional skills and experiences

is really important,

and they might want to use a paragraph

to talk a little about their
non-academic achievements.

If they are thinking of taking a gap year,

again, most universities
are fine with that.

We're probably not fine
with them spending 12 months

on a beach in Australia,

but some travelling, some
working, again, context.

They should be telling us
why they're looking to do it.

What are the skills that
they're hoping to develop

by taking that gap year?

So, one of the ways in which
you might help your students

get things started is, as
I say is not to sit there

with the cursor flashing,

but to perhaps think
about what they've done

over the last two or three years.

If they have had a part-time job,

if the school that you
work at is particularly

good at giving them a range of

extracurricular opportunities.

If they've done some work experience,

if they've been lucky
enough to do travelling.

What they need to do is start
reflecting on these things.

Now, if they come to you
drawing on experiences that are

three, four, five years old,

they tend to look less and less relevant.

So they want to try and keep it, you know,

as relevant as they can.

So they'll need to think about, look,

what have they actually learned
from doing that activity?

Does it relate to the subject

that they're looking to apply to?

Or have they learned
particular transferrable skills

that are going to be useful to them?

Again, from an academic
or a social point of view,

and if they haven't,

then you might want to coach
them and say, well look,

is that a really good example to be using

if you can't draw out some
of those skills and benefits?

And I've put these on here,

not to kind of make you think,

"Well, this is how many
they should be mentioning,"

but to demonstrate that,

ultimately on an application,

we would want to see more now
than just their traditional

teamwork and communication skills.

We want to see that
students can be proactive,

that they can think critically,

that they can problem-solve.

So I leave these on here just to get

you and your students thinking about

drawing out some of those skills

that they may have been working on.

Hobbies and interests is another topic

you always get asked about, you know,

well how much of these
should they mention?

Again, it's all about context.

Who doesn't like hanging
out with their friends?

I think the important thing
to take away though is that,

look, everyone will
bring something different

to their personal statement.

There isn't a set template here.

Not everyone gets the
opportunities to go travelling.

Not everyone has the contacts to

get a really good work
experience placement.

I'm sure you've got students who,

may be the primary
caregiver in their family

or may be holding down a part-time job

to support their family,

so everyone brings something different,

and that's great!

I think the reality is that,

whatever a student does,

whatever their background,
whatever their home life,

it's about saying, look,

these are the things that they do,

this is what shapes them into
the person that they are,

and this is what shaped their
desire to want to study that

particular subject.

So if you've got students that spend

all their free time engrossed
in particular authors

or genres or movies, we're fine with that,

but they should give us
some, again, some context.

Don't just tell us that
they stay up way too late

watching Netflix.

Mention particular directors or genres

and why they devour everything that that

particular person puts out.

So if they want a really
naff and cheesy way of

trying to remember
this, I always say look,

if a student's going
to mention an activity,

they should try and
draw from it the benefit

and if they can relate it to the course.

Again that's a useful benchmark for

should they be using that
as an example in their form.

So, in terms of structure, I think,

making sure the students don't just paste

one big block of text into the UCAS system

is really really important.

You know, it's still a
fairly rudimentary system,

what they should do is
sacrifice some of that spacing

to give us four or five clear paragraphs.

That they don't start with
the A-levels in paragraph one,

and suddenly come back to
them in paragraph four.

And they should definitely think of some,

think about having some kind of summary

that brings this all together,

that shows this admissions
person, whoever they are,

that look, this is why
I want to be considered,

this is why I think I'd
be really really good

on the course.

So, a statement that shows
that they're ready academically

and socially is worth considering as well.

So moving on to ways in
which they can enhance

their personal statement,

I think a lot of students
worry about work experience,

some schools and colleges have a very

structured, established
work experience programme

where every student will
be expected to do that,

and that's great.

I think that the thing
is that students then,

who perhaps have an unsatisfied placement

or don't get the chance to do this

worry that they're at
some kind of disadvantage,

and that's certainly not the case.

Often it's, you know,
your health sciences,

it'll be quite clear and say, look,

we expect a minimum of
12 weeks work experience.

And even for something like
medicine at Southampton,

that doesn't mean in hospital.

That doesn't mean in a GP surgery.

That might mean a job at
the local supermarket.

But it's about building
on those other skills.

For all other courses, then no,

they're probably not giving
themselves an advantage

from an admissions point of view

in having done one or two
weeks work experience.

I think a lot of students
find work experience

very observational.

They will spend one or two weeks

watching someone do a particular job.

So what I would say is
encourage your students

to do these other things,

to take part in public lectures,

to have a go at doing the extended project

or an extended essay.

Perhaps they do an online course,

perhaps they're really creative

and they're very active on Instagram

or perhaps they're very
politically minded.

Think about ways in which
you can support them

doing these things,

often which are very free and easy to do.

'Cause having an interest is great,

but ultimately I think over
the coming weeks and months,

they need to be doing more than just

checking the BBC's news website

for particular stories on their topic.

They need to be looking at
broader sources of information,

and not just reading
these things passively,

but starting to think about, well look,

how do I feel about this particular topic?

Do I agree with it?

Is there something that
the mainstream press

isn't talking about?

How do I feel about that?

And really starting to immerse themselves

in the current thinking on their topic.

They'll be doing this anyway

when they join us on our courses,

so they might as well get used to now

really starting to engage with the subject

that they're thinking of studying.

And there's no shortcut
to this, unfortunately.

Most of this will come
from further reading

beyond the syllabus.

And at the moment, universities
are working hard to

engage with schools and
colleges and give them as much

relevant content as we can,

but most of this will come from kind of

academic journals and online reading.

Twitter will be another
useful way of doing this,

again a broader sources of information

that they wouldn't find from
kind of mainstream Googling.

And a lot of university websites,

particularly in the American
and Australasian websites,

are incredibly generous
with the sorts of resources

that they put online.

We're not quite there yet in the UK,

but certainly institutions like

the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

they've put up here
their first year course

on macroeconomics and these
students could download

the lecture notes, the
calendars and reading notes,

the quizzes, the course materials.

So before your students have even started

their undergraduate degree in economics,

they could give themselves a
really good understanding of it

from an undergraduate level.

They should also contact universities.

I don't think there's
anything wrong with saying,

"Well look. Can you recommend
a good undergraduate

"first year textbook?

"One that I can pick up
that's a couple of years old?

"Or, is there a particular
website I can sign up to

"to get daily or weekly newsletters or

"watch live streams or,"

stuff that again, they would just miss

through mainstream Googling.

Depending on where you're based,

your students may live
close or have access

to their local university.

Again, under normal circumstances,

we'll all have our kind
of calendars of events

and what's on guide, and most of the time

these are often recorded
and put on YouTube

so I would urge your students to look at

the university's YouTube channels.

Often they might find prerecorded talks

on particular topics that
they're interested in.

And finally, we have MOOCs.

Massive open online courses.

These originated in the States.

FutureLearn is one of the
main providers in the UK,

and it's a great way for students, again,

to look at an undergraduate
style of resource.

Students don't have to do
the whole six or eight weeks,

they might just dip into
weeks three and four

because they're the bits
that they're interested in,

but we've done some ones on Southampton

on oceanography, on
psychology, on app development,

and if it looks like a student's

just missed a particular course,

often these MOOCs are run, you know,

two or three times a year,

so they can always put
it in their calendar,

to make sure they don't miss the next one.

So I'm going to finish then with
some tips that you can pass on

to your students about writing
the personal statement.

I think the key thing
is, as I said earlier,

is that they're not going
to get this thing done

in an afternoon.

It will take time.

Give them the time to keep
redrafting and make it

as good as it can possibly be.

You know, as I said at the start,

for most students it
really does come down to

their application and their
personal statements, so,

give them the support and the time

to make it as good as it can be.

As a bit of a checklist,

the students need to avoid just kind of

repeating information,
hammering home the same skill

two or three times throughout
the personal statement

doesn't make that any stronger,

in fact there's an argument to say,

"Well look, is that all
the student wants to bring

"to our attention?"

They should avoid kind of
lists, as I said, and cliches.

And humour, waffle and
outright bluff or lies

about things that they've read or done,

again is in my opinion
very very dangerous.

Spelling, grammar, vocabulary.

I'm sure all your students will say,

"Look! I've got a spell checker,

"I'm not going to make
those silly mistakes."

But you can spell a word correctly

but still be using it
in the wrong context.

And again, spelling, grammar, vocabulary,

all helps them write a really
persuasive personal statement,

and that's what this thing needs to be.

So you need to make sure
that they've added in

their comments, their
views, their explanations.

Make sure that before
this thing is sent off,

students are drawing on
their own experiences

of their subject.

My second and last example
is this idea of kind of

positive phrasing.

In this example here,

this student was applying
I think for English.

"At present I'm studying
A2s in English Literature,

"French and Media Studies.

"I cope with the work quite
well and meet the deadlines.

"I've learned a variety of skills."

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Now this one, it was a fairly

academically-focused personal statement,

this student talked a
lot about their A-levels,

and that's fine.

But I think "coping with
the work quite well",

you could argue that the language there

could be more positive.

So, broadened, developed, reinforced,

strengthened, acquired,
that kind of language,

turns what might feel
to the student a fairly

innocuous statement into
something a bit more positive.

Clearly there is a balance here.

This isn't about a student
going through their

personal statement with
the thesaurus in Word,

changing all their words for longer,

more sophisticated ones.

But I think the use of
language again will help

with it being persuasive.

So just so you know it's not me,

I did find some quotes from
other admissions staff.

"I want you to tell me
about you as a real,

"three-dimensional person."

"Be yourself, it's a pleasure,

"though a surprisingly rare one,

"to read a statement where
the candidate's own voice

"comes over clearly."

"It's important that you
write it in your own style

"rather than trying to conform to what

"someone else thinks is right."

So great that friends and families,

mums and dads, even
yourselves may get involved

and bring out the big red pen of justice

and offer lots of scribbles
and notes and advice

on the personal statement.

But really the students
need to be reading this back

and feeling like it represents them,

and it is their voice.

I think it's great if family
and friends want to offer

some advice on structure and layout,

but in terms of the actual words,

I think it's really important that you

encourage your students
to make sure that it is

their own voice and their
own words coming through.

And look, they don't want
to go overboard anyway.

"I tackle the tasks presented to me

"with wisdom and sincerity."

Or, "In my part time
job, everything I touch

"turns to sold."

Ultimately, look, your students are

trying to get a place on
an undergraduate course,

they're not trying to win
the final of The Apprentice.

So they need to think about, again,

who could potentially be
reading their application?

So my final tips to leave your
students would be is, look,

they need to start this thing.

They need to get pens, paper,

or put a notes folder on their phone,

and just get down some bullet points.

And over the coming weeks and months,

those points will become sentences,

and those sentences
will become paragraphs.

Before it's sent off,

do make sure that it's properly
spell checked, you know,

and again, that the structure,

it takes the time to make
sure that the structure flows.

And do keep a copy in case
they're called for interview.

Now, I said earlier on that,

really it's only your health sciences

that tend to interview, and that's true.

But as you'll know,

if you're familiar with the UCAS process,

is that once most students apply,

most if not all of their five choices

will invite them in for what we call

a UCAS visit day, a faculty
visit day, a visit day.

They're all the same type of thing.

They're normally held between

kind of October and March, April.

It's a student's chance
to visit a university,

perhaps they went to an open day,

and it was some time ago,

or perhaps they didn't get to an open day.

It's a much more kind of
decision-driven process

of saying, "Look, I've got to decide

"my first or my second choice.

"I'm going to go have a
look around the university,

"ask some serious questions,

"find out which is going
to be my number one

"and my number two spot."

And it's our chance as universities

to roll out the red carpet and go,

"Look how amazing we are!

"Of course you want to be putting us down

"as your first choice!"

But when students get
these letters and emails

inviting them in,

if any of them come to you and say,

"Well look, it says here,
arrival at 10 o'clock.

"Tour of the campus at 10:30,

"and 11 o'clock is a
one-to-one with an academic."

They should be quite
clear about what that is.

Is that a formal chat?

Is that a formal interview?

Will it have any bearing on

an offer that's already been made

or an offer following the visit?

Nine times out of 10, I
think your students will find

that look, this is an informal chat.

This is our chance to make them feel

warm and fuzzy about the course.

But, I have seen it before,

where admissions staff
will have the applications

of the 20 or 30 students
attending on that day

and they'll write in big pen
across the application form,

"What an amazing student! We
should take them at all cost."

And that gets put away until results day,

and confirmation and clearing.

So what I'm saying is that, look,

your students should go prepared
for these informal visits,

to still really sell themselves.

Those three things that they couldn't

cram into the personal statement,

they should have them
in their back pocket,

ready to impress.

Those things that they're working on,

that they don't get to complete

during their personal statement,

and by the time it's sent off,

it's something that they can talk about

during those extra visits.

And finally, my final tip,

is that it's really important

that students don't plagiarise.

Plagiarism is something we
take incredibly seriously

at universities,

and I like to think of today's students

as very much the copy
and paste generation.

They like to illegally stream

and file share and download.

They don't really care who owns something

or whether they should pay for it.

And most students, I think,

and I'm being very general here,

tend to like the path of least resistance.

They want to know what's
the minimum amount

of work I need to do to
get the maximum outcome.

So again, it's really
important that they're not,

that they're tempted not
to scour the student room

or pay some (mumbles)
company to write them.

I think there are two reasons why students

tend to plagiarise.

One, is that they can often
sometimes be a bit lazy

and they can't be bothered.

But I think the main reason is they worry.

They worry that their own
voice and their own words

are not going to be good enough.

Well if nothing else,
reassure them that, look,

you know, that is not the case.

Their own voice and their own experiences

are really really important.

The other thing is that
UCAS has some quite

sophisticated software that will scan

their personal statement against the

thousands upon thousands
that have been submitted

over the years.

So in here we can see, we're
not talking one or two words

or one or two sentences.

Here you can see
wholesale cut and pasting,

and here the UCAS system can tell

from one particular personal statement

submitted over 10 years ago,

where this has come from.

In this example here,

the student thinks they've
been a bit more clever,

but again, 67% of this is
deemed to be plagiarised,

drawing from three different sources.

So, I put this on here
not to make you worried

or make your students
think they have to write

in a particular style.

I mean, phrases like this
on the fourth paragraph,

"During my free time,
I keep myself informed

"of recent news by reading newspapers

"such as The Times."

Well look, over the years and
the thousands of applications,

yes, that has probably been written

time and time and time again,

but it's the fact that,

in line with the last paragraph,

"I trust that throughout
this brief statement,

"I have satisfied you of
my interest and commitment

"to the study of--"

and they've changed it to
maths and computer science.

"I believe I'll make a
positive contribution

"to your university,

"and aspire to have the opportunity

"to demonstrate this to you."

Now, that is a very
specifically worded sentence

that shows UCAS where it's come from.

So, it's really important
that your students aren't

tempted to take shortcuts.

If they do, they'll get
contacted by UCAS saying,

"Look, this is what we've found.

"We're not talking about
20% plagiarism, 30%,

"in here nearly 70% of this has just been

"wholesale copied and pasted."

So your students need
to remember that, look,

this is a personal statement, after all.

This is about them, and their voice,

and their chance to be persuasive.

There is no such thing as a
perfect personal statement.

There is no tick list that they
need to be working towards.

And you know, we're not
looking for a particular

type of student who's done a particular

or a certain amount of things.

You know, we're not going to
make the world a better place

if students have all
had the same experiences

and come from the same background

and all think the same way.

And quite frankly, academics
wouldn't want to teach

a room full of students
that are all the same, so,

they need to move away from this idea

that they're working towards writing

the perfect personal statement.

What they need to do is show
an interest in that subject,

give us some of that personal insight

that I've talked about,

and they'll need to use
this as an opportunity

to sell themselves.

Thanks for listening,

I hope you've enjoyed this,

and please feel free to contact me

with any questions via email.