- Hi there, and welcome to this presentation on writing UCAS references that stand out. My name is Peter, I'm the Head of the International Student Recruitment team at the University of Surrey. And I'm joined today by Tony, who is the Undergraduate Admissions Manager at the University of Sheffield. And here's what we're going to cover today. I'm going to talk about the basics of a UCAS reference, the objective of references, and how it's used by admissions teams at UK universities. And Tony's going to give you some advice on content, format, some top tips when writing a reference. So to cover the basics, what's the objective of a reference? Well, here's a nice articulation by UCAS of the objective as to give universities and colleges an informed assessment of an applicant suitability for further study. And I put emphasis to the word informed there because I think that's the key point. You and your colleagues know your students very well, you know them much better than we do. So the reference is an opportunity for you to share your insights into the student. The reason they've chosen the course they have, their career aspirations, really to give us another piece of the jigsaw to build that picture of the student who's applied to us. To cover just a few basics, the reference is limited to 47 lines, or 4000 characters. It works in tandem with alongside the personal statement. It supports all the UCAS choices, of course, it's not specific to one university. And in some cases, additional references are required and requested. So for example, students who apply to dentistry medicine will be asked for additional references that cover the work experience. So how is the reference used in the admissions process? Of course, each UK University is different. There can be some differences in approach between different universities and depending on the subject, but in general, most UK universities take a similar approach and I outlined four points here. Firstly, the reference is always read. We get asked this quite often, do we read all the references that are submitted? We read them in every single case, but for every single applicant, and yes, we do we always read the reference. Secondly, a positive approach is taken. UK universities when reading references will take a positive view of the reference. What do I mean by that? What I mean is when we read the reference, we're looking for information insights that make it more likely, we'll make an offer. We would very rarely read a reference and think it's less likely we'll not make an offer. So we take positive approach. Thirdly, the reference is very important for competitive programs and programs that may require an interview. So for example, at the University of Surrey, our courses in sound recording and veterinary medicine are very competitive, very popular and involve an interview. So the reference is very important, it can be very important deciding whether we invite students for an interview. And it's very important in advance of the interview itself. So that we may read before the interview. And finally, the reference is very important in borderline cases where we're a little bit unsure whether to make an offer, the reference can tip us over to deciding yes, we will make an offer to this student. And we've understood a little bit more about the motivations and maybe any extenuating circumstances that have impacted on those. So it isn't clear at the moment with so many schools closed and studies delayed. That's really crucial. So borderline cases is another area where reference can be a particular importance. So hopefully that sets the scene for Tony to give you a little bit more advice on the content of references and to give you a few top tips. - Thanks, Peter, so I'll take you through planning and preparation, and for reference rising expectations from the university point of view, and what you can include, and also looking at what to avoid, and rounding off with a common framework as a takeaway, and fee to structure references, and in a fairly straightforward way and should hopefully help when leading up to tackling UCAS reference writing. And also appreciating I guess, a normal conference environment, we would do an interactive session, where we discuss things, feedback and provide some insight into the admissions process. I will try and include as much background information about what we look for, why we look for it and how we use it and to inform the decision making process from an admission's point of view. And hopefully that I'll fill some of the gaps that may be missing, that we would have covered in an interactive part of the session. And looking at planning and preparation, one of the key things is having a robust process. And the fundamental part of that is to provide consistency and clarity. And when I fully appreciate that there are a number of competing priorities within a school when it comes to the point of submission, and particularly with early deadlines for medicine, dentistry, and so on, but also leading up to the 15th of January deadline as well. And one of the other things that a robust process enables you to do is to deliver in high volume, and again appreciating that some schools are fairly sizable and you will have a huge cohort all wanting to apply to University at the same time, particularly to different countries as well. So having a robust process allows you to processes as quickly, as efficiently as possible, and is really, really useful. As part of that, should be aware of their expectations of when to submit and what to submit. And also this timeline of actions also should be supported by training and updates. So maybe start a cycle, you know that you cast deadlines along the way, you do a quick refresher of this is what we're looking for, here's a pro forma you need to complete, please submit it with core information or summaries of that student in that particular environment for chemistry, for example. And then you collate all that together and enables you to deliver the reference writing very, very efficiently. And again, appreciating that this is always as easy as it is to say, and it should include, I guess, a process of observation logs. Again, you can get this from those that have frequent contacts with the student referee meetings. And again, I'll talk about this in two seconds about how important this can be in forming the reference and approval process to send check before it's submitted. And also a full application read through to make sure that there was clarity from start to finish. And nothing competing with each other. So the one thing that I just mentioned there is part of it, is additional details. So if you were to, for example, know a student's disability, you would need their permission before noting that in a reference. There is an expectation that any additional circumstances are included in a reference, but that can be informed by a student referee meeting, a very quick conversation to find out whether they want you to do that or not. So in terms of moving on to expectations, there are four key areas that I've put up here. And that should help inform what we're looking for from a reference point of view, one being that it's reliable. We receive a number of applications, the admissions teams get to know those applications. Over a number of years, they will get to know particular schools where we typically get our applications from as institutions. So for example, there's a reference that doesn't seem quite right or is out of step with the format that we would normally expect. It does stand out, and it's something that we will look to clarify, and would also look to just double check that there's nothing else going on there or to why which could delay our decision making. So just something to bear in mind in terms of consistency of approach, and being honest, and I'm not sure 99% of all schools are honest with their assessment of their applicants, but it is really important when we're looking at academically intensive environments that you are supportive in your reference writing, and it's an honest appraisal of an applicant's potential to study with us. And the two final points are in combination. As Peter mentioned, there is only 4000 characters or 47 lines, it's not a lot to include a fair amount of information. But it does need to be specific. And one of the key areas is being specific about the students strengths, what makes them suitable to study at one of our institutions in the UK. And that should form the main body of any reference. But obviously, bearing in mind that it would need to be concise, it needs to be punchy, and be comprehensive. So that covers the four broad areas, and which leads us into what include. This outlines three key areas, and I'll go into how this impacts on decision making. So looking at predicted grades, so your predictions. This is a really simple and straightforward way for you to articulate what you think they're going to achieve and it does really informal decision making from an admission's point of view. And one thing that we would also expect is that they're supportive. So for example, if you understand that an applicant is starting to achieve higher attainments, then that's absolutely fine. We appreciate that attainment can go up and down depending on a student's effort, circumstances and so on. And also being realistic. And so if someone is going into engineering, maths is fundamental. And if they're struggling in math, then they will struggle when they come to university. So just being realistic and supportive around their predicted grades and also from a point of view of not just meeting the requirements, but also for borderline cases. So one way to have a really strong personal statement, a really strong reference, and their predicted grades might be just slightly lower, we may still consider them but it's a view of an application in its entirety. In terms of when we would issue an aspirational offer. So the offer would be a volunteer requirements with a view that we think there's potential there, that they may actually achieve that level, just come and study with us. Lead into a background information. So this just an overview of the school, it does really set the scene in terms of information about the school, the curriculum, any key information or kind of headline information you would want to include in there. And it does allow us to understand where the student's been, what kind of environment they've been in, and then sets the scene for them, the more specific information about them. Leading from the background information into the applicant point of view. Now, I mentioned about special circumstances, I would normally expect that between the background information and the applicant information, any special circumstances, for example, disability, or anything that's impacted on their study is included there. And the applicant point of view should be an assessment of their academic suitability to succeed on the course. What we want is all of our students to come in, enroll, have a great time and succeed on their course. And so it's really important that we gain an understanding of that. And we're looking for a well rounded summary of that. So subject by subject basis, and any contributing factors within those particular subjects that you think would support their application to university, you give prominence to those subjects. It's really important that for particular subjects, where we look at prerequisite grades, or want to gain an understanding of particularly borderline cases that can be really useful in informing our decision making. Are there also associated achievements with their academic studying that you would like to include? And then that leads into the other additional information. So this could be achievements in school, could be leadership positions, societies, clubs, and any extracurricular activities and achievements and also a view of their social interactions as well. So that gives us a sense of them as an individual as well as their academic suitability for the course. And that's three key areas are really important, and then this would be rounded off with a concluding endorsement of their study with us. So this then leads me into what to avoid. Now, this hopefully should be fairly straightforward. It's not meant to be in any way, a just a to do list of things to avoid. I'm sure a lot of it you don't do anyway, but just to highlight it as part of this session. We would expect that every reference that we receive is supportive and positive. We wouldn't expect to receive a negative reference for an applicant. And one thing to note as well is that we have a number of years and years of experience of dealing with UCAS applications. We've seen every single type of personal statement or reference and there's a lot of experience with identifying where we read between the line. So for example, when we're reading a personal statement, it doesn't quite add up with their predicted grades for example, or it's not quite sitting well, we can identify that as part. So please from a point of view of supporting the applicant, that's what we are looking for. Also to read the personal statement, which is hugely important. And ideally, your students to the tutor meeting to take place. So you can get a sense of what they're thinking about in terms of the personal statement, I'm sure there's proofreading that goes on. And so people will have an idea, but having an application that flows and isn't competing. Sometimes we see applications where the reference is slightly off with the personal statement. And again, that does stand out. So worth saying that it's worth looking into that so that the two complement each other as a complete application. Also appreciate the volume of reference writing that you are expected to do at points in the year. And one thing I wanted to mention is sometimes with standard text, school information and a standard template or a framework for references, we do sometimes find a he is referred to as a she or vice versa in the reference. And again, it does stand out, one of the things we would do is just clarify that with you. And so if they hadn't noted anything about their gender on the application form, we would then double check with you, it might delay the decision making process. So that's something that just can't consider. And that's where the approvals process will prove important in checking before they're submitted. And finally, it's just looking at the the common frameworks. This is a takeaway of a structure to maybe frame your references going forward. So start with as I mentioned, the information about your school, the background information, any special circumstances that support and lead into the applicant information, and then this subject by subject report. The summary of their academic ability and suitability to study the course. And then there are additional achievements. So what have they done in school? And that wraps things up to then move into a concluding endorsement. So this is a framework that I've presented in schools previously, to tutors and it's provided a really useful step by step process to make things and to support the robust process that I mentioned earlier on. So hopefully, that's a walkthrough of what we expect from the university point of view. And I hope that you found the session useful with some useful hints and some expectations and how best to approach planning reference writing. Thanks for attending, and thanks for watching and I hope you found it useful and take care, bye bye.