Discussions

Does anyone out there know if Peter Saunders' question can be answered? It is anon-trivial matter since 25% of all undergraduates entering university in 2009 (and who took advanced levels) how have a pass or better in mathematics. When we held our meeting in London a few weesk ago there was a strong feeling that we needed to get the message over maths out to all admission tutors. In STEM of course (only! two-thirds of those admitted to read chemistry in October 2009 had maths at advanced level) but also in biology, in social sciencea and in the humanities. We are tryint to do this from the STEM Forum but are waiting until September when the admissions season for this October has ended.9+

Physics admissions tutors used to tell me that a candidate�s A-level physics grade was not a very good predictor of their degree classification, but that A-level mathematics was. Is this still true, and does it hold in other STEM subjects as well? Or other subjects, for that matter. If it is, it would make sense for departments to list mathematics as �desirable� simply as part of trying to select the students most likely to succeed.

Richard is indeed correct but how do we reach admission tutors and affec their behaviour? We became aware at the recent event (please go to Events on left hand side) that many admission tutors are not at all aware of the rapidity of the changes in the numbers of young people arriving at university with mathematics. From 2006 to 2009 the % with AL maths rose from 21 to 25% (across all subjects, a rate of increase approaching 8% p.a. This rise is largely amongst young people who do not require maths for entry to their degree and so the increases in biology and its associated degrees, the social sciences and humanities are about 25% over three years. This does seem an excellent trend and means that 65% of incoming medical studnets now have AL maths, 30% of biologists, 12% of social sciences and 9% of humanities. Do please see the full table which is fascinating and is on the website - click to Events then to Presentations. We think that admission tutors might respond to these changes by increasing the visibility of maths as a "desirable" or even "preferred" subject for entry: reactions please!

This is just to suggest to HEIs that if they wish to encourage students to take Mathematics A level or Further Mathematics for entry to HE courses for which they are not a requirement as such, UCAS Entry Profiles provide a good vehicle for communicationg preferences and guidance to wouldbe applicants and their advisers.

Richard Skerrett

Policy Executive

UCAS