A message from the Vice-Chancellor - A good week

Tuesday, 19 August 2014

The publication of A-level results last week meant a busy time for colleagues across the University. However, their efforts - and those of many others over the past few months - culminated in a very encouraging outcome.

Here are some of the headlines as of today:

• The University has so far accepted a total of 2949 Home/EU undergraduate students against a target of 2808. Additionally, our current level of Home/EU recruitment is 16% higher than the position at this point last year.
• A further 120 applicants are predicted to be accepted from the small pool of insurance applicants remaining and those with missing information relating to qualifications. This will help us to reach our intake target at enrolment once we factor in those students who do not turn up in September.
• As part of the 2949 total, we have recruited 12% more top grade students (i.e. those with at least ABB+ grades or higher at A-level) this year than 2013-14.
• We have accepted 510 overseas applicants against a minimum target of 528. A further 150 students are predicted to be accepted from the remaining pool of applicants with missing information relating to qualifications, which will again provide the University with a buffer for 'no shows' at enrolment in September.
• Biological Sciences, Art, English Literature, Henley Business School, Psychology and Systems Engineering have recruited particularly well. Additionally, Modern Foreign Languages has also done well, bucking the national trend of a shortage of applicants in this subject area.
• Overall demand for our courses was strong, with over 1450 good quality expressions of interest logged from over 4000 calls taken over the latter part of last week. This resulted in 166 students being recruited in Clearing and 7 through Adjustment (the process by which students can look to change their choice of university on the back of stronger A-level results than predicted).

I would like to be able to say that this represents a new and fixed pattern for Reading. However, the system of student admissions nationally is in a state of flux. Next year, there will be no cap on student numbers at all so it is very hard to predict what impact that will have, university by university. We will, of course, redouble our efforts to ensure that we have another strong showing in 2015. In the meantime though, I am enormously grateful to everyone across the University for their contribution to this year's intake numbers.

Finally, I was able to brief our Chancellor on what had happened with student numbers when I attended Saturday's football match against Ipswich Town at the Madejski Stadium. With a 1-0 score in Reading's favour, it was a double reason for celebration!

Sir David Bell KCB

Vice-Chancellor