Getting into Varsity: Comparability, Convergence and Congruence ...

unusual background, or lack the usual qualifications, to be interviewed. Applicants for other courses and other institutions may also be interviewed, depending on individual departments’ policies. The more popular the course and the institution, the more likely it is that an interview will be conducted to assess applicants’ suitability for the course and that their performances in the interview will affect their chances of being made an offer. For less popular courses, such as sciences or engineering, at anywhere other than the most competitive universities for these subjects, it is quite likely that the university has already decided to make the applicant an offer and that the interview is a way of encouraging him or her to accept it.

Following the selection process, universities and colleges decide whether or not they wish to make an offer to an applicant. The UCAS system may give the impression of being a uniform admissions system; however, individual admissions tutors typically make admissions decisions for any given course, and there are no hard-and-fast institutional or national procedures for doing so. How admissions tutors use the information provided through UCAS, interviews or admissions tests may therefore be somewhat idiosyncratic. This is particularly likely to be the case for courses with highly competitive entry requirements, where non-academic criteria—such as extracurricular interests, work experience or personal circumstances—may be significant factors. The universities and colleges send their decision to UCAS, which relays it to the applicant. Offers come in two forms: unconditional and conditional. Unconditional offers are likely to be made to applicants who have no examination results pending, whereas conditional offers are normal for applicants who have yet to sit, or are awaiting the results of, A-Levels or their equivalent. For example, an applicant wishing to study psychology at a university requiring one A and two B grades at Advanced Level will be accepted on the condition that they achieve those grades or perhaps the UCAS tariff points equivalent of them. The offer may also stipulate that the grade of A must be in a particular subject. Universities and colleges will sometimes make lower offers to applicants whom they are particularly keen to recruit.