Will replacing personal statements with application questions make university admissions fairer?

By Helena Gillespie, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Student Inclusion and Professor of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, University of East Anglia
Mark Walmsley, Lecturer in the Humanities and Widening Participation Academic Lead, University of East Anglia

Prospective students will no longer be asked to write personal statements as part of their application to university in the UK, the admissions organisation Ucas has announced.

Instead of writing a single 4,000 character personal statement, from 2026 applicants will instead have to answer three questions. These ask why they want to study a particular course, how their education has prepared them for it, and how their experiences beyond education…

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