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University of Reading

Vice-Chancellor's late Summer message

Wednesday, 26 August 2015

Sir David Bell

You could be forgiven a wry smile at the use of the word ‘summer’ above. It has been pretty grim, weather-wise, over the past couple of weeks. I hope that the last bank holiday weekend of the year offers us all some respite.

Two weeks ago, we were in the midst of all the pressure and excitement that invariably accompanies Confirmation week. We had the added interest this year of BBC South* with us for most of A-level results day.  But the team in the call room were unfazed by the attention and, along with colleagues across campus, made sure that everything ran smoothly.

Overall, we have been pleased with the outcome so far in this, the first year since the student number cap was lifted. The key headlines for undergraduate recruitment - as at 20 August - include:

  • we have accepted a total of 3306 Home/EU undergraduate students against a target of 3083;
  • a further 50 students are predicted to be accepted from the small pool of applicants with missing information relating to qualifications, helping us to achieve a buffer for those students who do not turn up in September;
  • our current figures of Home/EU accepted students are 11% higher than the position at this point last year and 25% higher than this point two years ago;
  • we have accepted a total of 537 overseas undergraduate students against a minima target of 601 students. However, a further 200 students have missing marks at this point so we expect to recruit a good number more;
  • when comparing the total Home and Overseas applicants recruited this year against last, we have seen a 23% rise in the number of applicants with results which have either met or exceeded their conditional offer; and
  • in Clearing and Adjustment, overall demand for our courses was strong with over 2400 high quality expressions of interest logged from more than 4800 calls taken from 8am on A-level results day. This resulted in 212 students being recruited through Clearing and an additional 23 through Adjustment (this being the process by which students can look to change their choice of university on the back of stronger A-level results than expected).

Nearly all undergraduate subject areas have recruited to target, with particularly strong recruitment seen in Classics, History, English Literature, Economics, Computer Science, Geography and all Henley Business School programmes. Additionally, for a second successive year, Modern Foreign Languages have bucked the national trend of a shortage of applicants in this subject area by recruiting a surplus above target.

Turning to postgraduate recruitment, key points include:

  • this year has seen the introduction of deposits being required for most overseas applicants to confirm their place. This, in turn, enables us to achieve a higher degree of certainty as to our postgraduate taught intake this year;
  • to date, we have firm acceptances from 1620 overseas students against a minima target of 1255 and a total of 1229 Home/EU firm acceptances against a target of 1149; and
  • whilst the Admissions Office continues to prompt postgraduate taught offer holders for their results, the picture with postgraduate recruitment remains fluid as it always is at this point in the cycle.

We are seeing particularly strong recruitment in Henley Business School programmes as well as those in Politics and International Relations, Chemistry, Pharmacy, Psychology and Typography with these areas already meeting their minima targets. Other areas such as Construction Management, Food Biosciences and Meteorology are similarly all performing well with current deposit levels being close to the minima targets set.  

I am, of course, grateful to James Ackroyd, our Director of Admissions, for compiling this helpful summary.

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to visit our new sports pavilions; one near the SportsPark on the Whiteknights campus and the other on what was the Bulmershe campus. I was really impressed with them, not least because they complement our other excellent sports facilities. Official openings will take place early in the autumn.

A number of you have kindly asked about the reading I did on holiday. Being based in the UK meant that I didn't do quite as much as normal although I made excellent use of my National Trust membership in Warwickshire and Norfolk. Books I did enjoy included Professor Sir David Eastwood’s Government and Community in the English Provinces, 1700 – 1870, Benjamin Johncock's impressive debut novel, The Last Pilot and The Truth Commissioner by David Parks.

Currently, I am reading Robert Putnum’s Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis. Rather intimidatingly though, I have counted at least eight other books that I have in the ‘To read’ pile. And of course, there’s always more being added………

Finally, and I know I have said this before, do try and visit the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon if you can. I saw Othello and Volpone there at the end of July and am back forThe Jew of Malta this coming weekend. The RSC is a very welcoming place and you won’t be disappointed, whatever you see.

SIR DAVID BELL KCB

Vice-Chancellor

University of Reading

 

*I won’t dwell on the fact that the reporter referred to me as ‘Sir Tony Bell’ live on air!