Investigating the alignment of teachers and admissions professionals on UCAS personal statements

Teachers play a crucial role in supporting applicants with their UCAS personal statements, a key part of the undergraduate admissions process in the UK. This paper investigates the extent to which there is alignment between teachers and admissions professionals on what makes a highquality personal statement. We draw on a dataset (n=409) of state school teachers’ responses before completing a training programme developed by Causeway Education. Our analysis identifies several important areas of misalignment. In particular, we find evidence of the persistence of the myth that the UCAS personal statement should provide a personal insight into the applicant, as well as the associated tendency to view high-quality academic content as reading too much like an essay. We contend that this misalignment is likely to disproportionately impact under-resourced applicants, acting as a barrier to widening participation. We conclude with a series of implications and recommendations to address this misalignment, placing the responsibility on universities to provide more transparent and accessible information about the UCAS personal statement.