You can also see the presentation here.

As you would expect, student recruitment was one of the main topics – and the picture is unexpectedly positive. Despite entering clearing with an unprecedented number of home/EU undergraduate places still to fill, we started the new academic year with bang on the button recruitment numbers – an exceptional achievement in this environment.

There is good news too on international students, with numbers up around 250 compared to last year. However, as predicted, the postgraduate community is shrinking with a fall in home/EU numbers, though international p/g numbers are rising.

Although our post-clearing situation is good, we urgently need to change our admissions processes to ensure we do not need to take such emergency action in future years. Work is already underway to implement procedures to improve applicant experience. We have also agreed new internal progression pathways for our FE students to encourage many more of them to stay at UAL as undergraduate students.

Another key challenge is to improve student experience, and we will be conducting a Student Barometer survey for the first time, which gathers feedback from students in a clear way that we can address.

Looking forward, the future holds some important challenges and opportunities, including a Quality Assurance Agency review, the launch of a new UAL website and preparation for the Research Excellence Framework in 2014.

The way staff have risen to the challenges that this year has presented makes me very optimistic that we will continue to perform strongly in the future. Thank you all for your hard work and best wishes for a happy and relaxing Christmas break.

As I said in my last all staff briefing, student recruitment is now the biggest challenge UAL faces. We started August this year with an unprecedented number of Home/EU places available – around 350 – and even some of our most popular and prestigious courses entered clearing for the first time.

Clearing is becoming increasingly competitive

This is partially due to the sector-wide environment. Higher fees are making potential students think much more carefully about their choices, and applications to creative undergraduate degree courses have declined across the sector.  Applications for Foundation Degrees fell by almost 30%.

However this large number of unfilled places is also due to weaknesses in our internal processes. In some cases, we were slow to make offers and students went elsewhere. Some courses simply did not make enough offers and others rejected good quality applicants only to end up in clearing.

I’m pleased to say that we have ended clearing in a very healthy position. Across the University, we are just 44 students below our full-time Home/EU undergraduate recruitment target of 3,483, though the situation varies from College to College. For international undergraduates, we are currently 43 under target – again, a comfortable position and actually better than this time last year.

This is thanks to the tremendous work done by recruitment and admissions staff during the clearing period, and we all owe them our gratitude for turning around an extremely challenging situation so successfully.

It is absolutely critical that we learn lessons as we recruit for 2013 entry. Government subsidy no longer exists to cushion an under-recruiting course – if we do not attract students then we do not have income. In this radically changed environment, no College or course can afford to rest on its laurels; we have to work very hard to explain to applicants the benefits of a UAL education and we need to sharpen up all our recruitment processes.

We cannot be complacent about 2013 entry. Improving our admissions processes is now a major priority, and University Registry Services is leading is leading a wide-ranging review, which I will give more details about in a future blog post.

I will give a more general overview of UAL’s current position and what we can look forward to in 2013 in my all staff briefings next month. I hope to see many of you then – in the meantime, please do post your comments and questions here.

The main message of my most recent briefings is that student recruitment is now the biggest challenge UAL faces. International recruitment is going well, but recruitment of home students is more difficult, not just here but across the sector.

Our innovative students at a 2012 graduate show

There are some things we know we have to change – in some parts of the University, for example, we have been too slow in processing applications and that is something that must be urgently addressed. In many cases, we have also experienced major fluctuations in offer to acceptance ratios. The reasons for that are not yet clear but we shall be reviewing the detailed data as soon as it becomes available.

The Clearing period will improve the position, but we must learn lessons quickly for the next recruitment cycle.

There is good news and a lot to be optimistic about. We have kept our costs under control and our financial position allows for some reinvestment. We have firm plans to make improvements to sites across the University, which will improve the experience of students and staff.

However next year’s finances now depend almost entirely on recruitment and that is something we must get right.

You can see more details on my slides (PDF 363kb).

If you missed the briefings or want to look over the slides again at your leisure, you can see them here: All Staff Briefing March 2012

Overall, we are in good health – but that is despite some disappointing recruitment outcomes this year, particularly the relatively small increase in postgraduate numbers when compared to our very ambitious target.

Recruiting successfully to all courses is a key goal

As I said at all my briefings, my optimism remains cautious because we have some big short-term challenges:

• **we need to recruit successfully across all courses for 2012, dealing with the inevitable fluctuations in demand and ensuring that we fill all undergraduate places before Clearing
• **we must complete the Key Information Sets on schedule
• **there will be much work needed to complete the contact hours project on time and then use the resulting data to ensure that we deliver the promised contact hours to students
• **we must be prepared quickly to learn from 2012 recruitment patterns, adapting course and number targets accordingly for 2013
• **we must work together to ensure that the creation of programme directors and course clusters (accompanied by the appointment of course lead administrators and other administrative support to course teams) delivers the required improvements to course organisation and management

That we are in a position to be optimistic about the future, albeit with caveats, makes us rather unusual within the higher education sector, and my thanks go to all of you for the work you do. I hope the approaching Easter break will afford you some well-deserved relaxation.

Please do share any feedback you have about this term’s all staff briefings – including any ideas you have for subjects you would like me to address in future briefings.

Across the art and design sector, applications for degree places fell by 16%. Across UAL in particular, we experienced a 17.4% decline in applications for degree places and a 29.2% decline in the applications for foundation degree places. Compared to 2010 entry, applications were down 7% overall.

Potential students at UAL's stand at the 2011 UCAS art and design fair

On these figures, we will have approximately seven applications per 2012 home/EU place and this is high by comparison with our sector. It is also worth noting that we have in previous years received a very significant number of additional applications after the 15 January deadline (5,000 in 2011) so, as long as we have courses listed as open with UCAS, applications will continue to come in between now and the summer.

On this basis, the overall reduction in applications should not be problematic and I remain confident that we will fill our 2012 home/EU places.

For comparative purposes, applications at University for the Creative Arts were down 29.7%, Goldsmiths were down 23% and Arts University College of Bournemouth were down 19.2%. Ravensbourne and Norwich University College of the Arts did relatively better, with applications down by 9.7% and 4.4% respectively.

Our Colleges are now analysing applications per course. This analysis will provide important data to enable us to focus continuing recruitment efforts on those courses for which applications have fallen significantly.

The reduction in applications will also provide a further incentive for us to focus on developing our internal processes to manage applications more effectively.

All staff briefings will be held across all Colleges and for central services next month so I will be able to give you more information then. In the meantime, please do share your thoughts on what this situation means for UAL and how we should respond.

There is of course sense in enabling students and institutions to make decisions based on actual rather than predicted grades – though neither are particularly relevant to arts and design admissions. But the knock on effects from this major upheaval would create enormous stress for both applicants and staff, a point we have made strongly in our response to UCAS.

Proposed changes threaten widening participation to UAL

Our first concern is that bringing forward the application deadline would severely limit the time available to consider candidates. That would be the case for all universities, but particularly affects creative education since our selection process is based largely on portfolios, interviews, auditions and so on, and is therefore time-intensive. Late application would also make arranging vital services such as housing and financial support more intense and cut the time available to prepare for enrolment, creating a frenzied run-up to freshers’ week for students and staff alike.

We are also concerned about how this will affect our work to broaden access to UAL. Our widening participation team works hard to give people without a family history of higher education the confidence to believe that a place here is within their reach. Limiting applicants’ time to think and come to a decision may undermine that work. Additionally, many potential applicants may be unaware that disappointing exam results are not necessarily a barrier to arts and design.

I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on this issue, so please share your feedback here. Anyone who wishes to can also reply to the consultation in a personal capacity and details on how to do so are here.

Those of you who have attending the briefings may recall that the number of Home/EU students we are able to recruit was at risk from proposals for unrestrained recruitment of students with A level grades of AAB and above, also referred to in a previous post. This would of course put arts and design at a disadvantage since A level grades are not a primary factor in recruitment to our courses.

A levels are not UAL's primary recruitment tool

I am delighted to say that our lobbying on this point has been successful. HEFCE has now advised us that institutions that recruit primarily on the basis of portfolio or performance will be able to opt out of this AAB+ rule, which will mean we do not lose student numbers. While we will have no opportunity to increase our Home/EU student numbers next year, our numbers will be set at the same level as the current year, providing some much needed planning stability for the new fees regime.