Admissions Review Report
Universities and colleges are autonomous institutions and admissions are a matter for institutions themselves
In 2003, Charles Clarke, the then Secretary of State for Education and Skills, commissioned Professor Steven Schwartz, the then Vice-Chancellor of Brunel University, to lead an independent review of the options which English institutions providing higher education should consider in assessing the merit of applicants for their courses, and to report on the high-level principles underlying these options.
Professor Schwartz and his Steering Group consulted on a number of draft recommendations from April - May 2004. They published their final report (PDF, 273 Kb) on 14 September 2004.
In September 2007, in response to one of the Schwartz Report recommendations, the Department commissioned a follow up review to establish how the principles outlined in the 2004 Schwartz Report have been implemented and what changes have occurred in admissions processes in higher education (HE) to support the Schwartz Report’s five principles.
The review was managed by the Supporting Professionalism in Admissions (SPA) Programme through a research team based at Sheffield Hallam University. The Review Report, published on 10 December 2008, comprises three reports, published as ‘Fair Admissions to higher education: a review of the implementation of the Schwartz Report principles three years on’:
Report 1: Executive Summary and Conclusions (PDF, 274 Kb)
Report 2: Research Findings (PDF, 1.3 Mb)
Report 3: Themes and good practice case studies (PDF, 449 Kb)
