The hours spent by students writing personal statements for UK university applications may be in vain, according to figures showing that many are barely read by admissions officers.
The ritual of applying for a place at university has for decades included a personal statement as part of the admissions process, with the applicant – and often their parents, teachers and even paid consultants – helping to craft an essay limited to 4,000 characters, approximately 600 words.
But the huge increase in applications means that admissions officers rather than academics now do much of the decision-making, and are left with little time to read statements.
A survey of admissions staff by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) found the average time spent reading a personal statement was two minutes, with two out of five statements read for just a minute or less. Officers at Russell Group universities devoted only 90 seconds per statement on average.
One admissions officer reported: “We look at them all but the majority we don’t read in their entirety – we give them a skim.” The majority of those surveyed said decisions were primarily made on the basis of exam grades.
Tom Fryer, a researcher at the University of Manchester who was lead author of the study, said: “What we found was that often the personal statement was read very quickly, and that it’s not as important as parents and students and teachers expect.”
Fryer said “efficiency” was a common comment by the admissions officers surveyed, with many universities using centralised admissions staff responsible for reviewing applications in a wide range of unrelated subjects such as physics and veterinary science.
Even two minutes a statement would add up to many long hours. University College London last year received more than 76,000 applications for undergraduate places. Two minutes a statement would require 2,500 hours, or more than 63 working weeks, to read them all.
The report comes as the Ucas admissions body is considering changes to the format of the personal statement, which has been criticised as stressful and favouring applicants with greater support.
Ucas said it could replace the single statement with a series of short questions covering six themes. But the Hepi authors said there was no evidence that two of the themes – “preparedness for study” and “learning styles” – were considered important by admissions officers.
Instead, the report recommends that “there should be space within the Ucas form for applicants to discuss extenuating circumstances, as admissions professionals do consider this information”.
Nick Hillman, Hepi’s director, said: “Shining a spotlight on the use of personal statements was always going to be useful to applicants and those who advise them but doing it now helps inform the important reforms that Ucas are currently planning.”
