Admissions Co-ordinator
LAW ADMISSIONS MANUAL
Michaelmas 2020
Last updated September 2020
1
INTRODUCTION
This manual describes the admissions procedures for Law and Law with Law Studies in Europe in
2020-21.
The Manual has been revised and streamlined. It is now organised around the Admissions timeline
with more detailed information on processes provided in the appendices.
There have been
substantial changes to how Admissions works, and this manual replaces all
previous manuals.
The changes what needs to be done are outlined in the Weekly Instructions. Further information if
needed can be found in the Appendices. Headings of sections with significant changes or new
information are highlighted in blue.
As there are some key shifts in responsibility for some aspects of Admissions, allocations of
responsibility are outlined in the timeline and in
Appendix D.
If you have any questions about this manual, please contact the Admissions Coordinator or
Admissions Officer:
Admissions Co-ordinator:
Admissions Officer:
If you have any questions about general admissions procedures, refer to the UAO Handbook
(access via Single Sign On) or contact UAO.
2
Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................... 2
Timeline ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Contextual Data: Quick Reference Guide .................................................................................................................. 13
Weekly Instructions .................................................................................................................................................. 15
Week -2, Michaelmas ................................................................................................................................................... 15
Week 0, Michaelmas .................................................................................................................................................... 16
Week 2, Michaelmas .................................................................................................................................................... 17
Week 3, Michaelmas .................................................................................................................................................... 18
Week 4, Michaelmas .................................................................................................................................................... 20
Week 4, Michaelmas ........................................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Week 5–6, Michaelmas ................................................................................................................................................ 23
Week 9, Michaelmas .................................................................................................................................................... 24
Thursday 12 December ............................................................................................................................................ 25
Friday 13 December ................................................................................................................................................. 26
Week 10, Michaelmas ...................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Monday 16 December ............................................................................................................................................. 27
Mid-August, Long Vacation .......................................................................................................................................... 28
Monday 9 August ..................................................................................................................................................... 28
Tuesday 10 August ................................................................................................................................................... 28
Wednesday 11 August ............................................................................................................................................. 28
Appendix A: The Admissions Co-Ordinator ............................................................................................................... 29
Appendix B: ADSS ..................................................................................................................................................... 30
1. User IDs..................................................................................................................................................................... 30
2. Logging in ................................................................................................................................................................. 30
3. College information pages ........................................................................................................................................ 30
3. Candidate Summary Page ........................................................................................................................................ 30
Detailed Candidate Information and Comments page ............................................................................................ 31
Filter Function .......................................................................................................................................................... 31
Generating PDF documents and Excel Spreadsheets .............................................................................................. 31
Rearranging applicants ............................................................................................................................................ 31
4. Saving data ............................................................................................................................................................... 31
5. Decision View............................................................................................................................................................ 32
Appendix C: Terminology.......................................................................................................................................... 33
1. General Terms .......................................................................................................................................................... 33
2. Candidate Category Definitions ................................................................................................................................ 34
Terminology Example ................................................................................................................................................... 34
Appendix D: Key Changes in the New System ........................................................................................................... 36
1. College Blinding ........................................................................................................................................................ 36
2. New Formula for Faculty Shortlisting Ranking and Post-Interview Ranking ............................................................ 36
3. Centralised Shortlisting ............................................................................................................................................. 37
3
4. Centralised LNAT Marking ........................................................................................................................................ 37
5. New Evaluation Scoring ............................................................................................................................................ 38
6. Moderation of Offer-Making via Faculty Meeting ................................................................................................... 38
Appendix E: Division of Responsibilities ................................................................................................................... 39
1. Before shortlisting is completed and college-blinding removed ......................................................................... 39
ii) After shortlisting is completed, college-blinding removed and rescue candidates have been allocated ............ 39
iii) Communicating Decisions Responsibilities ......................................................................................................... 39
iii) Feedback Responsibilities ................................................................................................................................... 40
Appendix F: LNAT ..................................................................................................................................................... 41
Background .................................................................................................................................................................. 41
Late LNAT ..................................................................................................................................................................... 41
Exemptions from the LNAT ........................................................................................................................................... 41
i) Illness .................................................................................................................................................................... 42
ii) Family emergency or recent bereavement .......................................................................................................... 42
iii) Availability of testing centre ............................................................................................................................... 42
Marking ........................................................................................................................................................................ 43
Multiple choice section ............................................................................................................................................ 43
Essay section ............................................................................................................................................................ 43
Appendix G: Marking Process for LNAT Essays .......................................................................................................... 44
1. Nominating Markers ................................................................................................................................................ 44
2. Marker Training ........................................................................................................................................................ 44
3. Marking Process ....................................................................................................................................................... 44
1. What is Comparative Judgement? ....................................................................................................................... 44
2. Marking Criteria ................................................................................................................................................... 45
3. No More Marking system..................................................................................................................................... 45
4. Marking Scale ....................................................................................................................................................... 45
5. Uploading Marks to ADSS .................................................................................................................................... 45
Appendix H: Faculty Selection Committee ................................................................................................................ 47
1. Faculty Selection Committee Functions .................................................................................................................... 47
2. Committee Member Responsibilities ........................................................................................................................ 47
3. Composition of Faculty Selection Committee ........................................................................................................... 48
4. Widening Participation Sub-Committee ................................................................................................................... 49
5. Harris Manchester College and Mature Candidates ................................................................................................ 49
6. Meetings ................................................................................................................................................................... 49
First meeting: Introduction and Allocation of Responsibilities (Friday, 3rd Week) .................................................. 49
Second meeting: Shortlisting (Monday, 6th Week) .................................................................................................. 50
7. Excel Training ........................................................................................................................................................... 50
8. Timeline for Faculty Selection Committee ................................................................................................................ 50
Appendix I: Shortlisting and Allocation of Candidates .............................................................................................. 52
1. Missing Information ................................................................................................................................................. 52
2. ADSS Rankings, WP Banding and Categorisation of Candidates .............................................................................. 52
3. Shortlisting Process................................................................................................................................................... 53
4. Shortlisting Principles ............................................................................................................................................... 54
1. General Principles ................................................................................................................................................ 54
2. Specific principles ................................................................................................................................................. 55
3. Reasons for Deselection ....................................................................................................................................... 56
4
5. Allocation of Shortlisted Candidates ........................................................................................................................ 56
1. College Preferences ............................................................................................................................................. 56
2. Allocation Principles for Shortlisted Candidates .................................................................................................. 56
6. Rescuing Candidates ................................................................................................................................................. 58
1. Rescue List Candidates ......................................................................................................................................... 58
2. College Rescue of Candidates .............................................................................................................................. 58
7. Opportunity Oxford .................................................................................................................................................. 59
8. Timeline for Shortlisting ........................................................................................................................................... 59
9. Contacting Candidates Once Shortlisting is Complete .............................................................................................. 59
Appendix J: Widening Participation .......................................................................................................................... 61
1. Collaborative Access Approach................................................................................................................................. 61
College Outreach and Access Contacts .................................................................................................................... 61
2. Bands of Disadvantage ............................................................................................................................................. 63
3. Access Candidates Who Exceed the Standard Offer but Are Not Taken ................................................................... 64
4. Benchmarking ........................................................................................................................................................... 65
5. Opportunity Oxford .................................................................................................................................................. 66
a) The Programme ................................................................................................................................................... 66
b) Targets for Widening Access ................................................................................................................................ 66
c) Eligibility for Opportunity Oxford ......................................................................................................................... 66
d) Applications ......................................................................................................................................................... 67
e) The role of Tutors and Admissions Tutors ........................................................................................................... 67
f) The role of Admissions Coordinators .................................................................................................................... 67
g) Shortlisting ........................................................................................................................................................... 67
h) Final decisions ...................................................................................................................................................... 68
i) Open offers and reallocation ................................................................................................................................ 68
j) The Admissions Executive has approved the following recommendations: ......................................................... 68
Appendix K: Understanding the Data and Group Differences in Performance .......................................................... 69
1. LNAT ..................................................................................................................................................................... 69
2. GCSE and A-Level Performance ............................................................................................................................ 75
3. Overseas Candidates ............................................................................................................................................ 76
4. Mature candidates ............................................................................................................................................... 76
5. cGCSE Score.......................................................................................................................................................... 76
Appendix L: Law APR Analysis of cGCSE Score .......................................................................................................... 78
The analysis of the APR on contextualised GCSEs is reproduced in full below. ....................................................... 78
Appendix M: Interviewing Candidates ...................................................................................................................... 82
1. Assessing interviews ................................................................................................................................................. 82
2. Interviews for non-UK applicants ............................................................................................................................. 82
Students holding a passport from the European Economic Area (EU and Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and
Switzerland............................................................................................................................................................... 82
Students from other regions of the World .............................................................................................................. 82
Appendix N: Evaluating Mature and Senior Status Candidates ................................................................................. 84
1. Evaluating applications by mature students: some general points .......................................................................... 84
2. Interviewing mature students .................................................................................................................................. 85
3. Senior status applications ......................................................................................................................................... 85
Appendix O: Evaluating Candidates .......................................................................................................................... 87
1. Interview Scoring ...................................................................................................................................................... 87
2. Candidate Scoring ..................................................................................................................................................... 88
5
i) Candidate Score .................................................................................................................................................... 88
ii) Candidate Rank .................................................................................................................................................... 88
iii) Relationship between Candidate Score and Candidate Rank ............................................................................. 89
Appendix P: Second Interviews and Offer Process .................................................................................................... 90
1. Offer Priority Rules ................................................................................................................................................... 90
2. Interviewing .............................................................................................................................................................. 90
i) First Interviews ...................................................................................................................................................... 90
ii) Releasing Candidates for Second Interview ......................................................................................................... 90
iii) Requesting Candidates for Second Interview ..................................................................................................... 91
3. Provisional Offers ..................................................................................................................................................... 91
4. Final Offers and the Faculty Moderation Meeting ................................................................................................... 92
Appendix Q: Final Decisions...................................................................................................................................... 93
1. Law / Law with Law Studies in Europe candidates ................................................................................................... 93
2. Senior Status candidates .......................................................................................................................................... 93
3. Opportunity Oxford .................................................................................................................................................. 93
4. Open Offer Scheme ................................................................................................................................................... 94
1. Course 1 ............................................................................................................................................................... 94
2. Course 2 ............................................................................................................................................................... 94
5. Communicating Offer Decisions ............................................................................................................................... 95
Appendix R: Law with Law Studies in Europe............................................................................................................ 96
1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................................................. 96
2. Available courses and places .................................................................................................................................... 96
3. The exchange scheme ............................................................................................................................................... 96
4. Cost implications ...................................................................................................................................................... 97
5. Exchange arrangements for students currently in their second year ....................................................................... 97
6. Eligibility for Admission to Course 2 ......................................................................................................................... 97
a) Home/EU/Overseas students .............................................................................................................................. 97
b) Linguistic ability ................................................................................................................................................... 98
7. Applications .............................................................................................................................................................. 98
1. Applications for deferred places .......................................................................................................................... 99
2. Applicants who are graduates of other universities ............................................................................................ 99
8. The Language Test .................................................................................................................................................... 99
1. Language tests conducted by colleges ................................................................................................................. 99
2. Language tests conducted by the Language Centre .......................................................................................... 100
9. Procedure for Course 2 Nominations ...................................................................................................................... 100
10. Information required on nominated candidates .................................................................................................. 101
11. Course 2 Decisions ................................................................................................................................................ 101
‘Reserve list’ ........................................................................................................................................................... 102
12. Making Offers to Candidates Accepted by the Selection Committee ................................................................... 102
1. Form of offers to accepted candidates .............................................................................................................. 102
2. Form of letter to candidates who are have been placed on the ‘reserve list’ ................................................... 103
3. Copies of offer letters; and later information about candidates’ acceptances ................................................. 103
Appendix S: Example of Interview assessment form ............................................................................................... 104
Appendix T: Sample letter to Course 1 open offer candidate ONLY ........................................................................ 105
Appendix U: Sample Feedback Letter ..................................................................................................................... 106
6
Appendix V: Candidate Statuses (ADSS) ................................................................................................................. 107
Appendix W: Useful Contacts ................................................................................................................................. 108
1. ADSS Technical Support .......................................................................................................................................... 108
2. Law Admissions Support ......................................................................................................................................... 108
7
TIMELINE
Key dates and deadlines are in
bold.
Coll
eges (College Tutors / College Admissions
Admissions Coordinator
Office)
Michaelmas
Week -2
Advertise for LNAT marker interest
Friday 5pm
Week -1
Deadline for LNAT marker interest expressions
Friday 5pm
Week 0
Produce list of graduate students/lecturers
Monday
available to take on LNAT marking if needed
Week 0
Deadline for nominating (via Form):
Assign LNAT markers where needed
Thursday 5pm
LNAT marker
People to have ADSS access
Week 0
Deadline to notify ADSS team of people to have
Friday 5pm
access
Week 1
LNAT markers must have contracts in place
Friday
Week 2
LNAT Essay marking training session
LNAT Essay marking training session
Tuesday 20th October
(compulsory for LNAT markers)
Week 2
Deadline for nominating (via Form):
Wednesday 21st October
Faculty Selection Committee member
(for Group A)
Week 2
Candidate Information available on ADSS
Friday 23rd October
(college blind)
Week 3
Deadline for submitting LNAT essay marks
Faculty Access Officer will send college-blind list of
5pm Thursday
(5pm)
Band A/B candidates to colleges, who may submit
29th October
additional information for consideration to
Deadline for entering college place
Faculty.
information.
Deadline for receiving Senior Status transcripts
(forward to Admissions Officer)
Deadline for expressing preferences (via Form)
Category 1 reallocations
Residual reallocations
Week 3
First Faculty Selection Committee meeting
2pm Friday
30th October
LNAT essay scores available on ADSS
Week 4
Faculty Selection Committee receives allocated
Faculty Selection Committee to be sent allocated
5pm Monday
applications
applications
2nd November
Deadline for Colleges to submit any additional
information / comments on candidates to
Faculty
Week 5
Deadline for submission of Faculty Selection
5pm Wednesday
Committee spreadsheets
11th November
Week 6
Second Faculty Selection Committee meeting
10am Monday
(Shortlisting)
16th November
Week 6
Run ADSS reallocation
Tuesday 17th November
Week 6
Colleges receive shortlist of candidates for
Remove college-blinding
Wednesday 18th
interview
November
8
Deadline for expressing preferences (via Form)
Notify colleges their shortlisted candidates can
(4pm)
now be seen on ADSS
Places for additional interviews for
Rescue candidates
Near-Miss rescue list displayed in OneDrive
Indicating candidates a college wishes
to rescue (not on Faculty Rescue List)
Week 6
All candidate statuses confirmed on ADSS by
Allocate additional candidates from Rescue list
3pm
Faculty and colleges notified at 3pm
Thursday 19th November
Change status of college-rescued candidates to
shortlisted on ADSS.
Notify decisions final 3pm
Week 6
Colleges to send Interview invitations
Friday 20th November
Book language test appointments with
Week 9
Interviews may commence
Monday 7th
December
Week 9
Interviews must conclude
Thursday 10th December
12 noon Week 9
Deadline for entering on ADSS: (3pm)
ADSS second ranking run.
Thursday 10th December
Interview rankings
3pm
Candidate rankings
Candidate scores
Provisional offer decisions
Deadline for requesting candidates for Second
Interview (3pm)
Week 9
Colleges who have requested them will be able Notify second interviewing colleges of their
Thursday 10th December
to see their allocated Second Interview
allocated Second Interview candidates.
4pm
candidates on ADSS
Week 9
Second interview candidates to be invited for
Friday
interview
11th December
Week 10
Second Interviews
Monday
14th December
Week 10
Deadline for Second Interview Colleges to
5pm Monday
enter on ADSS:
14th December
Provisional offer decisions for second
interview candidates (and amend other
decisions if necessary)
Colleges will be able to view all offer decisions
Week 10
Colleges may contact the Admissions Co-
Tuesday 15th December
Ordinator about candidates who have not been
made offers ahead of the Moderation Meeting
Week 10
Faculty Moderation Meeting to confirm offers
10am Wednesday
(at least one Admitting Tutor from each college
16th December
must attend)
Week 10
Deadline for finalising offer decisions and
5pm Wednesday
Course 2 nominations on ADSS
16th December
Week 10
Course 2 committee meets to make it LSE
Thursday
decisions
17th December
Week 10
Course 2 decisions confirmed on ADSS
Course 2 Co-Ordinator to confirm nomination
Friday
(morning)
decisions
18th December
9
Colleges may now amend ADSS offer codes to
reflect Course 2 nomination decisions
Long Vacation
Tuesday 10th August 12pm
Confirm whether to keep your open offer
Reallocate Grades Met Open Offer candidates to
candidate; indicate if you would like an
new colleges if applicable.
additional open offer candidate.
Tuesday 10th August 2pm
Decide if interested in viewing suitable
Send interested colleges information of
clemency near miss candidates.
candidates suitable for clemency.
Wednesday 12th August
Send ordered list of clemency candidates you
Confirms open offer allocation.
10am
are willing to consider to
xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx@xxx.xx.xx.xx
Wednesday 12th August
Transfer candidates to new colleges if applicable.
12pm
Transfer candidates to offer college for
processing or reject.
Wednesday 12th August
Deadline for final decisions
6pm
Coll
eges (College Tutors / College Admissions
Admissions Coordinator
Office)
Michaelmas
Week -2
Advertise for LNAT marker interest
Friday 5pm
Week -1
Deadline for LNAT marker interest expressions
Friday 5pm
Week 0
Produce list of graduate students/lecturers
Monday
available to take on LNAT marking if needed
Week 0
Deadline for nominating (via Form):
Assign LNAT markers where needed
Thursday 5pm
LNAT marker
Faculty Selection Committee member
(for Group A)
People to have ADSS access
Week 0
Deadline to notify ADSS team of people to have
Friday 5pm
access
Week 1
LNAT markers must have contracts in place
Friday
Week 2
LNAT Essay marking training session
LNAT Essay marking training session
Tuesday 20th October
(compulsory for LNAT markers)
Week 2
LNAT essays available
Thursday 22nd October
Week 3
Deadline for submitting LNAT essay marks
5pm
(5pm)
Thursday 29th October
Deadline for entering college place
information.
Deadline for receiving Senior Status transcripts
Deadline for expressing preferences (via Form)
Category 1 reallocations
Residual reallocations
Week 3
First Faculty Selection Committee meeting
LNAT essay scores available on ADSS
Friday 30th October
(2pm)
First Faculty Selection Committee meeting
Week 4
Faculty Selection Committee receives allocated
5pm Monday
applications
2nd November
Week 5
Deadline for submission of Faculty Selection
5pm Wednesday
Committee spreadsheets
11th November
10
Week 6
Second Faculty Selection Committee meeting
Second Faculty Selection Committee meeting
10am Monday
(Shortlisting)
(Shortlisting)
16th November
Week 6
Run ADSS reallocation
Tuesday 17th November
Week 6
Colleges receive shortlist of candidates for
Remove college-blinding
Wednesday 18th
interview
November
Notify colleges their shortlisted candidates can
Deadline for expressing preferences (via Form)
now be seen on ADSS
Places for additional interviews for
Rescue candidates
Invite rescue requests 4pm
Indicating candidates a college wishes
to rescue (not on Faculty Rescue List)
Near-Miss rescue list displayed in OneDrive
Week 6
Allocate additional candidates from Rescue list
Thursday 19th November
Change status of college-rescued candidates to
shortlisted on ADSS
Notify decisions final 3pm
Week 6
Colleges to send Interview invitations
Friday 20th November
Book language test appointments with
Week 9
Interviews may commence
Monday 7th
December
Week 9
Interviews must conclude
Thursday 10th December
12 noon Week 9
Deadline for entering on ADSS:
ADSS second ranking run.
Thursday 10th December
Interview rankings
1pm
Candidate rankings
Candidate scores
Candidates that may be released
Deadline for requesting candidates for Second
Interview
Week 9
Colleges who have requested them will be able
Notify second interviewing colleges of their
Thursday 10th December
to see their allocated Second Interview
allocated Second Interview candidates.
3pm
candidates on ADSS
Week 9
Second interview candidates to be invited for
Friday
interview
11th December
Week 10
Second Interviews
Monday
14th December
Week 10
Deadline for entering on ADSS:
5pm Monday
Offer decisions
14th December
Colleges will be able to view all offer decisions
Week 10
Colleges may contact the Admissions Co-
Tuesday 15th December
Ordinator about candidates who have not been
made offers ahead of the Moderation Meeting
Week 10
Faculty Moderation Meeting to confirm offers
10am Wednesday
16th December
Week 10
Course 2 committee meets to make it LSE
Thursday
decisions
17th December
Long Vacation
Tuesday 10th August 12pm
Confirm whether to keep your open offer
Reallocate Grades Met Open Offer candidates to
candidate; indicate if you would like an
new colleges if applicable.
additional open offer candidate.
11
Tuesday 10th August 2pm
Decide if interested in viewing suitable
Send interested colleges information of
clemency near miss candidates.
candidates suitable for clemency.
Wednesday 12th August
Send ordered list of clemency candidates you
Confirms open offer allocation.
10am
are willing to consider to
xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx@xxx.xx.xx.xx
Wednesday 12th August
Transfer candidates to new colleges if applicable.
12pm
Transfer candidates to offer college for
processing or reject.
Wednesday 12th August
Deadline for final decisions
6pm
12
CONTEXTUAL DATA: QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE
13
14
WEEKLY INSTRUCTIONS1
Key: Action: College Tutors , College Admissions Office , Faculty Selection Committee , Faculty
of Law , and
Deadline.2
Week -2, Michaelmas
Admissions Officer emails Law Faculty mailing list to requesting expressions of interest in LNAT
marking from graduate students, stipendiary lecturers and other non-postholders.
Deadline: Friday 2nd October
Expressions of interest are to be received by Friday -1 Week (2nd October).
1 All candidate data in screenshots has been anonymised.
2 There are references throughout the manual – click to be taken to the appropriate section.
15
Week 0, Michaelmas
College admissions officers are asked to complete Microsoft form they have been sent,
indicating:
Lead Tutor for the coming admissions cycle
Any other tutors needing access to ADSS
College’s LNAT marker
Deadline: Thursday 8th October
Lead tutors are given read-write access. Other tutors are given read-only access.
If anyone needs access after the deadline, colleges should write to the ADSS Support Team
(xxxx@xxxxx.xx.xx.xx) and copy in the Admissions Officer (
).
Those involved in the coming admissions round will be added to the Law Admissions mailing list.
LNAT Markers
Must be a graduate student, stipendiary lecturer or equivalent (cannot be a postholder)
A college may either:
o Nominate a marker who is already employed by the college; or
o Request a suggested marker from the Faculty (college will be responsible for hiring,
right to work checks and payment)
Admissions Officer will collate a list of LNAT markers available to be employed by colleges for
circulation (circulated on request)
Faculty Selection Committee representative
All colleges in the Group who will comprise the Faculty Selection Committee
must nominate one
postholder to act as representative (see further guidance at
Appendix H). Deadline for
nominations is
Wednesday Week 2.
In 2020, the Faculty Selection Committee will comprise members from
Group A:
Balliol College
Lady Margaret Hall
Brasenose College
Lincoln College
Christ Church
Magdalen College
Corpus Christi College
Mansfield College
Exeter College
Merton College
Hertford College
New College
Jesus College
Oriel College
Keble College
Harris Manchester College is required to send a representative in all years.
16
Week 1, Michaelmas
College admissions must have LNAT marker contracts on place and Right to Work checks
completed.
Deadline: Friday 16th October
17
Week 2, Michaelmas
College tutors are asked to nominate their Representative to Faculty Selection Committee
(Group A colleges only) by
Wednesday 21st October.
LNAT Markers must attend LNAT marker training on
Tuesday 20th October.
LNAT essays will be available for marking on
Thursday 22nd October.
Admissions Co-Ordinator will conduct LNAT marker training and circulate materials.
Admissions Officer will add LNAT Markers to No More Marking, and they will receive their
essay allocations on
Thursday 22nd October.
Admissions Co-Ordinator will send acknowledgement of application letters to all candidates on
Friday 23rd October.
LNAT Marker Training will take place
online via Teams in 2020.
Guidance on LNAT marking is found in
Appendix G.
Candidate Information will be available on ADSS (college-blind) on
Friday 23rd October. Colleges
do not need to evaluate applications as this stage of Admissions is now conducted solely by the
Faculty Selection Committee.
Note: Faculty is now responsible for acknowledging receipt of application, not colleges.
18
Week 3, Michaelmas
First
Faculty Selection Committee meeting held on
2pm Friday 30th October
No preparatory action is needed. WP Sub-Committee will be selected at this meeting.
LNAT Essay marks to be made available on ADSS on
Friday 30th November.
Faculty Access Officer will send college-blind list of Band A/B candidates to College
Admissions Officers, who may submit additional information for consideration to Faculty
(
Tuesday 27th October)
College admissions tutors will invited to offer any additional information they hold on the list of
Band A/B candidates sent to them for consideration by the Faculty Selection Committee in its
shortlisting deliberations (by
Tuesday 27th October)
Colleges must submit any Senior Status transcripts received to Admissions Officer for upload
to ADSS by
5pm Thursday 29th October.
LNAT Markers must submit marks for all essays by
5pm Thursday 29th October.
Lead Tutors must enter details of the
number of Law
places available at your college on the ‘Law College
Information Page’ and ‘Law Senior Status College
Information’ page
on ADSS:
‘Total Capacity’ = places available, including
deferred places already allocated for Oct 21/22
start and Open Offers.
‘Deferred Candidates’ = deferred places already
allocated for Oct 21/22
‘Available Capacity’ = places available including
the number of Open Offers you intend to make,
but excluding deferred places already allocated.
Law College Information Page
This is used to calculate how many candidates will be
shortlisted to your college. It is imperative that this
information is accurate.
Any changes must be
discussed with the Admissions Co-Ordinator.
Lead Tutors also need to
express preferences for reallocation of candidates via Microsoft
Forms (click link below). College must indicate whether it wishes to:
retain its Band A/B Category 1 candidates (yes/no)
retain all other shortlisted Band A/B candidates who applied to that college (yes/no)
be reallocated Band A/B candidates over other candidates (other than Category 1) (number
to be reallocated. Select ‘0’ if prefer to receive candidate by Average Means Distribution)
interview Rescue candidates (number of candidates to be interviewed)
19
Check you have:
☐ Entered your places under the correct college.
☐ Saved what you have entered by clicking on the ‘save’ tab.
☐ Entered your number of Senior Status places on Law Senior Status College Information page,
if applicable.
☐ Submitted the form.
Deadline: 5pm, Friday 30th October 2019
20
Week 4, Michaelmas
Faculty Selection Committee receives allocated applications held on
5pm Monday 2nd
November
College admissions tutors wishing to submit any additional information they hold on the list of
Band A/B candidates sent to them for consideration to the Faculty Access Officer
for consideration by the Faculty Selection Committee must do so by
noon Monday 2nd November.
21
Week 5, Michaelmas
Faculty Selection Committee
must submit recommendation for shortlisting spreadsheets to the
Admissions Officer by
5pm Wednesday 11th November
22
Week 6, Michaelmas
Second Faculty Selection Committee meeting is held
10am Monday 16th November at which
the Shortlist and Rescue List will be agreed.
Faculty will apply shortlisting preferences expressed by colleges and run the ADSS algorithm
to allocate candidates on
Tuesday 17th November.
Faculty will finalise all shortlisting decisions (including rescues) on ADSS and notify colleges by
3pm Thursday 19th November.
Colleges will be able to view their shortlisted candidates ADSS on
Wednesday 18th November
(morning).
College blinding will ha
ve been removed.
The Near-Miss Rescue List will be made available on OneDrive.
College tutors
must express their Rescue preferences and indicate any other candidates
they wish to rescue (via the Form that will be sent) (by
4pm Wednesday 18th November)
Places for additional interviews for Rescue candidates
Indicating candidates a college wishes to rescue (not on Faculty Rescue List)
College admissions officers will be able to view the status of their candidates on ADSS at
3pm
Thursday 19th November. Admissions tutors are requested not to contact candidates until
confirmation of all shortlisting and rescue decisions is received.
College admissions officers are now able to invite shortlisted candidates to interview (to be
held between 9am Monday 7th December and noon Thursday 10th December).
Colleges are strongly urged to begin interviews early, to avoid interviewing the Thursday
(to allow time for decision-making and problems that may arise with remoted interviewing
this year).
Responsibility for contacting candidates is as follows:
Deselected candidates should be notified by their College of Application (only)
Shortlisted candidates should be notified by their Shortlist College (only).
(See further
Appendix E on responsibilities for communication)
College admissions officers now arrange interviews and book language tests (if needed for
Course 2 nominations).
Course 2 applicants should be contacted to:
confirm preference of country destination; and
whether they wish to be considered for one of the alternative country destinations within
Course 2 if they are not successful in their application for the preferred country.
Colleges which are not making their own arrangements for language testing, but wish to have
their candidates tested at the Language Centre,
must book in advance by contacting
. They will be given specific times for their candidates to present
themselves at the Language Centre.
It is hoped that colleges will make their bookings as part of the planning of their interview
timetables. There is no guarantee that the Language Centre will be able to offer last-
minute bookings for language tests.
23
Week 9, Michaelmas
Admitting Tutors will conduct interviews between 9am Monday 7th December and noon Thursday
11th December.
Tutors are strongly urged to avoid interviewing on Thursday if possible to leave time for problems
with remote interviewing and the need for extra interviews, and to enable time for entering the
new evaluations and decisions on ADSS.
24
Thursday 10 December
College tutors need to:
☐ Record on ADSS the following evaluation and decisions:
Interview rank
Candidate rank
Candidate score
Provisional offer decisions
Scores for Senior Status candidates should be entered on the Senior Status Decision View
page. Scores for
every candidates
must be entered in order to run the post-interview smart
reallocation.
These new evaluations and offer processes are explained in Appendix O and it is strongly
advised that tutors familiarise themselves early with these new aspects of the process.
☐ Email the Admissions Officer (xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx@xxx.xx.xx.xx) indicating either:
you are an exporting college releasing candidates to be available for second interview (you
do not intend to make them offers), or
you are an importing college and the number of candidates you would like to second
interview.
☐ Repeat this process for Senior Status candidates.
Note: A college may not both import and export in the same admissions round (but some
modification to this rule and its implications for offers are explained in Appendices O, P
and Q which tutors are strongly advised to read carefully.
Deadline: 3pm, Thursday 11th December 2020
The post-interview smart reallocation will be triggered by the Admissions Officer shortly after
3.00pm on Thursday 11th December and then determine which candidates will be allocated to
Second Interview.
Admissions Officer will notify College Admissions Officers of their Second Interview candidates
by
4pm Thursday 11th December.
College admissions officers will be notified (via email and on ADSS) of the candidates they have
been allocated for Second Interview by
4pm Thursday 11th December. They are then
responsible for inviting these candidates and arranging interviews (please liaise with the First
Interview College as necessary) and must give sufficient notice such that candidates can be
interview on
Monday 15th December.
Second Interview candidates will be available for viewing on ADSS by
4pm Thursday 13
December. Set College 1 to ‘Al ’ and College 2 to your own college to display candidates
allocated to your college.
25
Friday 11 December
College Admissions Tutors must have notified Second Interview candidates that they will be
interviewed on Monday 15th December.
26
Week 10, Michaelmas
Monday 14th December
Colleges conducting Second Interviews must complete these in time to enter their Provisional
offer decisions for second interview candidates on ADSS (and amend other decisions if
necessary)
5pm Monday 15th December.
All College Tutors will be able to see all decisions at this point and are expected to prepare
themselves for the Faculty Moderation Meeting on
Wednesday 17th December.
Tuesday 15th December
Faculty will run the Post-Interview ranking algorithm.
Admissions Co-Ordinator will discuss candidates available for offer with colleges if they wish to
do so.
Wednesday 16th December
Faculty Moderation Meeting to confirm offers (at least one Admitting Tutor from each college
must attend) will be held at
10am Wednesday 17th December.
Offer moderation will be undertaken as outlined in
Appendix P and Q.
Deadline for finalising offer decisions and Course 2 nominations on ADSS is 5pm
Wednesday 16th December.
Thursday 17th December
Course 2 committee meets to make it decisions
Friday 18th December
Course 2 decisions confirmed on ADSS (morning)
Colleges may now amend ADSS offer codes to reflect Course 2 nomination decisions
College tutors need to:
☐ Change the decision for each nominated candidate as follows:
a) Candidates
accepted by the Committee (AFra, AGer, AItal, ASPa or ANth):
o ‘N’ should be changed to ‘
P2’ (place on Course 2), and
o ‘N(O)’ should be changed to ‘
O(2)’ (open offer on Course 2).
Note: reserve candidates are not to be offered a place on Course 2.
b) Candidates
rejected by the Committee or placed on the reserve list:
o if the college proposes to make an offer (or an open offer) of a place on Course
1, ‘N’ or ‘N(O)’ should be replaced by or ‘
P1’ or ‘
O’;
o if the college does not propose to make an offer of a place on Course 1, ‘N’ or
‘N(O)’ should be replaced by one of the ADSS rejection decisions.
27
Mid-August, Long Vacation
Colleges must confirm the
one contact for all Law Confirmation decisions to the Admissions
Officer by 30 July.
A-level embargo period 2pm Friday 6 August – 6am Thursday 12 August.
Monday 9 August
A-level results are available in eVision. College Admissions Officers confirm results matching is
correct. College may discuss results with Admissions Coordinator to aid decisions.
Tuesday 10 August
Colleges participating in the Open Offer scheme must confirm if they are keeping their Grades
Met Open Offer candidates, and if they would like to import any Grade Met Open Offer candidates
from the pool
by 12pm.
College Admissions Officers should send all the Grades Not Met candidates they are not
confirming to the unqualified pool and record all disclosed extenuating circumstances on eVision.
Any colleges interested in viewing Grades Not Met applicants who have appropriate extenuating
circumstances and are suitable candidates for clemency
by 2pm.
Interested colleges will be sent details of suitable candidates for clemency as per UAO
guidelines.
Wednesday 11 August
Colleges considering candidates suitable for clemency must send an ordered list of candidates
they would consider to
by 10am
Candidates will then be distributed to colleges accordingly.
Decisions must be made by
6pm Wednesday 11 August to be on UCAS Track when it opens at
8am Thursday 12 August.
28
APPENDIX A: THE ADMISSIONS CO-ORDINATOR
The centralised system places increased responsibility on the Admissions Co-Ordinator. Some of
this responsibility requires access to candidate college information. It is therefore not possible for
the Admissions Co-Ordinator to be subject to candidate blinding, and so
it is not appropriate for the
Admissions Co-Ordinator to participate in college admissions decisions while in the role of
Admissions Co-Ordinator. It is also preferable that the Admissions Co-Ordinator does not take on a
cohort of candidates to evaluate for shortlisting or offers, but rather oversees the entire process.
The Admissions Co-Ordinator must undertake the following responsibilities during the Admissions
process, at times as directed by the Faculty Selection Committee.
Chair all Faculty Selection Committee meetings
Oversee the application of the principles for shortlisting and the making of offers by
Committee members
Collating and applying shortlisting and offer preferences from colleges, via:
o Collection of preferences (via Microsoft Forms)
o Manual application of preferences within the ADSS system
Applying principles of the centralised admissions system to college preferences,
particularly:
o Assigning candidates to colleges for interview in accordance with the shortlisting
principles;
o Discussing the movement of candidates at the offer-making stage (directed by
Faculty Selection Committee recommendations);
o Chairing the Faculty Admissions Meeting;
o Overseeing timetabling and management of the Admissions system.
29
APPENDIX B: ADSS
ADSS is a web-based software which supports the admissions cycle and the sharing of information
between colleges and the Faculty. You do not have to use a VPN to access this website even
when you are logging in from outside the university network. For a more detailed guide, the full
ADSS manual is available on the ADSS webpage.
1. User IDs
ADSS is accessed using your Web-Auth (Single Sign-on) username and password. This will be
what you use to access Nexus/Webmail or Weblearn. If you do not currently have a username and
password for Single Sign-on (or have forgotten them) you will need to go to:
www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/webauth/oxfordusername.xml.
2. Logging in
Login at https://adss.ox.ac.uk using your Web-Auth (Single Sign-on). If the system fails to
recognise you, you will need to contact the Admissions Officer.
3. College information pages
You will need to enter details of the number of Law places available at your college as follows:
Column name
Numbers to Enter
Total Capacity
Places available
Include: deferred places already allocated for October 20/21 start
Include: Open Offers
Deferred Candidates
Deferred places already allocated for October 21/22
Available Capacity
Places available this year
Include: Open Offers you intend to make
Exclude: Deferred places already allocated for October 2021/22 start
This number is used to calculate how many candidates will be
reallocated to your college
Please note: it is required that colleges indicate the number of places they intend to make
available and do not deviate from this without discussion with the Admissions Co-
ordinator.
SAVE once data has been entered by clicking on the ‘save’ tab.
For colleges accepting Senior Status candidates enter the number of Senior Status places in
the
Law Senior Status – College Information page.
3. Candidate Summary Page
The
Candidate Summary Page provides an overview of the most important information about Law
and Law with Law Studies in Europe candidates including
30
information listed in Section 3 of the ADSS reference manual
Widening Participation banding
cGCSE score
Faculty Shortlisting Score
Faculty Shortlisting Ranking
Category
LNAT results
For information on Senior Status candidates, switch to
Senior Status Candidates Summary page by changing your access on the top right-hand menu. Transcripts for Senior Status Candidates
which have been sent to your college or the Faculty are available to view as an electronic copy on
ADSS.
Detailed Candidate Information and Comments page
To see more information on an applicant, please double-click on the name of the applicant.
A pop-up window with the applicant’s details wil appear.
Applicant marked with ‘C’ flag on the candidate summary page have
comments entered on their
record. Comments can be entered or read by typing in the ‘Comments’ box and pressing save.
Comments usually include:
LNAT exemption
illness
Filter Function
To
filter by college, use the pull-down menu on the left hand side.
To
filter for specific terms, enter search term in the box on the left hand side. Note: filter function is
character sensitive so it will return everything with the characters on the page.
Generating PDF documents and Excel Spreadsheets
The PDFs will be the UCAS forms of the applicants.
Generate for
all applicants on the page by clicking the second ‘Generate PDF’ button / ‘Generate
Excel’ button
Generate for
specific applicants by ticking the box next to the applicants’ name then click the first
‘Generate PDF’ button / ‘Generate Excel’ button.
Rearranging applicants
Click the up / down arrows beside a column name to sort by that metric in ascending or
descending order.
4. Saving data
ADSS does not save data automatically.
You must click ‘save’ before moving away from each
page to save any data entered.
31
5. Decision View
This page had changed somewhat from previous years to reflect the more detailed evaluation
process.
This page is used for
entering:
Interview rank
Candidate score
Candidate rank
Offer decisions
It will also
display ranks and scores calculated by ADSS:
Interview rank scores
Candidate rank scores
Shortlisting ranking
Post-Interview ranking
And it will display some candidate data to be particularly considered in making offer decisions:
Widening Participation banding
Composite score
Comments
32
APPENDIX C: TERMINOLOGY
The new centralised system necessitates some more complicated terminology. However, much of
this is needed only to understand the system, or is used by the Admissions Co-Ordinator,
Admissions Officer and Faculty Selection Committee.
1. General Terms
Note: terms marked with an * are used largely by the Admissions Co-Ordinator/Officer.
Term
Definition
Category
All candidates are assigned a category based on their First Faculty
ranking. Categories range from 1 to 5 (see below)
Band
All candidates are assigned a Band by UAO reflecting Widening
Participation measures. Bands range from A to D (see XXX)
N(c)
Total number of candidates
N(f)
Total number of places available across Faculty
N(col)
Total number of places declared to be available in a given College
N(i)
Total number of candidates interviewed
Shortlisting Ranking
Ranking performed pre-shortlisting based on cGCSE and LNAT
(see
Appendix I). Ranking within all candidates.
Post-Interview Faculty
Ranking performed post-interview based on cGCSE, LNAT and
Ranking
Interview scores. Ranking within all interviewed candidates.
Interview rank
Ranking within interviewee cohort based on interview performance.
Ranges from 1–N(i)
Interview rank score
Generated by ADSS and reflects ranking within each college (scale
of 1–100).
Candidate score
Ranges from 1–5. Score for the candidate’s aptitude and suitability
overall.
Candidate rank
Ranking within interviewee cohort based on overall candidate
strength. Ranges from 1–N(i)
Candidate rank score
Generated by ADSS and reflects ranking within each college (scale
of 1–100).
Shortlisted candidate
Candidate allocated to a college’s shortlist.
Shortlist college
College to whom the candidate has been allocated by Faculty
Shortlisting. Has priority when making an offer unless candidate
has been released for Second Interview.
Rescue candidates*
Near-miss WP candidates not shortlisted by Faculty Selection
Committee but added to the Faculty Rescue list, and also
candidates neither shortlisted nor on the Faculty Rescue list who
have been rescued by a College.
Both are converted to ‘Shortlisted candidates’ on ADSS by Faculty
once shortlisting, reallocation and rescuing is complete.
33
Second interview
Interviews conducted at a second college (in 2020, these are held
on Monday Week 10).
Second interview
Candidate being interviewed at a second college after the main
candidate
round of interviews.
Interviewees*
All Shortlisted* and Second Interview candidates* allocated to a
particular college for interview
Interviewing college
College at which the candidate is being interviewed
College of Application
College to which the candidate applied via UCAS
Offer priority college
The College that holds priority to make an offer to a candidate. This
is the Shortlist college, except for candidates who have been
released for Second interview. The Second interview college
becomes the Offer priority college unless and until it decides not to
make the candidate an offer, at which point priority returns to the
Shortlist college.
2. Candidate Category Definitions
Category
Candidate rank
Category 1
1 to N(f)
Category 2
(N(f) +1) to 2*N(f)
Category 3
(2*N(f) +1) to 3*N(f)
Category 4
(3*N(f) +1) to 4* N(f)
Category 5
All remaining candidates
Example
If Faculty has 250 declared places, N(f) = 250.
Category 1 = Candidates ranked 1 to 250
Category 2 = Candidates ranked 251 to 500
Category 3 = Candidates ranked 501 to 750
Category 4 = Candidates ranked 751 to 1000
Category 5 = All remaining candidates
Terminology Example
Jane applies to Jesus. Jesus is the College of Application.
She is shortlisted by the Faculty, but as she is Category 2, she is reassigned to Trinity on
reallocation. She will be interviewed at Trinity, which is the Shortlist College.
Trinity is the Shortlist college and also the Offer priority college. Jane is one of their Shortlisted
Candidates.
Trinity does not wish to make her an offer, and releases her (‘exports’ under the older terminology)
for second interview.
34
Faculty allocates her to St Hugh’s, as they wish to second interview candidates. They become the
Offer priority college.
St Hugh’s decides they also do not wish to make her an offer.
Trinity becomes the Offer priority college once more. At the Faculty meeting, Trinity has priority to
make an offer if they now wish to do so.
Trinity does not wish to do so, but Jesus and St Hilda’s both do.
Jesus is next in line of priority (as College of Application) and so may make the offer.
35
APPENDIX D: KEY CHANGES IN THE NEW SYSTEM
The new Admissions system comprises some key changes, while retaining other fundamental
features of the Law Admissions system. The core principles guiding selection of candidates remain
unchanged, but selection is now to be more overtly guided by:
a more proactive and collaborative approach to widening participation, including
benchmarking to the Faculty’s previous best performance on access
a recognition of the findings of the Admissions Process Review on group differences and
access.
The key changes are outlined below, and some responsibilities have moved from colleges to
Faculty, a table is included in
Appendix E detailing who is responsible for certain crucial aspects
of the Admissions process.
The changes this year also have knock-on implications for some aspects of our usual practices,
specifically:
acknowledgment of applications
dealing with missing information
the importing / exporting of candidates for second interview
the making of offers
the provision of feedback
These are addressed in the relevant sections of the Manual as well as where they arise.
1. College Blinding
All shortlisting decisions are now to be made via college-blind evaluation of candidates by the
Faculty Shortlisting Committee (FSC). To this end, no college information in relation to a candidate
will be available on ADSS until after the FSC can produced its Shortlist and Rescue list, and
reallocation has been performed.
These allocations are made after the Second Faculty Meeting (Shortlisting) in Week 6.
Once this is complete, blinding will be removed and colleges will be able to see all college
information and make decisions about rescuing candidates.
This necessitates some new terminology and new approaches to managing candidates, including
timetabling. These impacts are detailed in
Appendix E.
36
3. Centralised Shortlisting
The new Admissions model removes the need for colleges to evaluate candidates and decide who
to invited for interview. It does away with the process that was formerly known as ‘cherry-picking’.
This task is now performed by the Faculty Shortlisting Committee and is detailed in
Appendix I.
4. Centralised LNAT Marking
All LNAT essays are now marked by a pool of LNAT markers, drawn from the colleges and
augmented by Faculty appointed markers to help carry the load. They will mark essays as a pool
(college-blind). All colleges must bear an equal marking load. Marking is conducted via
comparative judgment, not raw score marking. However, a score on the usual scale will still be
generated and will appear on ADSS. Colleges will still also be able to read any LNAT essay as
before.
Note: in the past, some colleges have marked on their own scales (eg 0–100) rather than the
usual Oxford marking scale. LNAT marking will follow the Oxford scale this year, not 0–100.
37
5. New Evaluation Scoring
To enable better comparison of candidates across colleges, a new system for evaluation will be
used. This will also enable us to collect more detailed data about how we make decisions and their
implications.
After interview, instead of entering an interview score, colleges will now be asked to enter:
interview ranking
candidate ranking
candidate score (1-5)
ADSS will generate scores from the rankings that can be compared across colleges. This is
explained in detail in
Appendix O.
6. Moderation of Offer-Making via Faculty Meeting
Colleges retain their autonomy to make offers only to candidates of their choosing at all times.
However, the way offers are made will be
moderated collectively via the holding of the Faculty
Moderation Meeting before offers are finalised, at which further moderation and discussion will be
facilitated and the offer list will be collectively agreed at this meeting.
The Admissions Co-Ordinator will consult with colleges prior to this meeting on other candidates in
the pool if they wish to do so.
The Faculty Moderation Meeting discussions will be guided by the goals of:
benchmarking to previous best access performance
achieving consistency
ensuring colleges are aware of the full pool of candidates
Again, the key goals at this meeting are to achieve consistency and ensure Faculty as a whole
acts as best it can to benchmark on access.
It remains the case, however, that no college can
be compelled to make an offer to a candidate.
This meeting will be held
10am Wednesday 10th Week.
One Admitting Law Tutor from each
college (at least) should attend.
The offer process and meeting are explained in more detail in
Appendix P.
38
APPENDIX E: DIVISION OF RESPONSIBILITIES
Responsibilities for general administration, some decisions and care of candidates have changed
under the new system. The new division is explained here, and captures the responsibilities
assigned and explained more fully elsewhere in this Manual.
1. Before shortlisting is completed and college-blinding removed
Faculty will be responsible for:
Acknowledging receipt of applications
Requesting missing information from candidates
Informing colleges of their shortlisted and rescued candidates
Colleges should:
Forward any information/queries received from candidates to the Admissions Officer
ii) After shortlisting is completed, college-blinding removed and rescue candidates
have been allocated
Faculty will be responsible for:
Notifying colleges of their candidates for interview
Selecting candidates for export to colleges requesting candidates for Second Interview and
informing Shortlist College and Second Interview College of these decisions
Providing information requested by colleges to facilitate offer-making decisions
Making and notifying colleges of Course 2 decisions
Colleges are responsible for:
Informing candidates they have not been invited for interview (College of Application
only)
Contacting candidates to invite them for interview (Shortlist College
only)
Uploading any new, late submissions of information
Arranging interviews
Liaising with one another about transfer of candidates for Second Interviews
Arranging Language tests (for Course 2 applicants)
Evaluating candidates and entering evaluation information on ADSS
Nominating candidates for Course 2 places
Making and communicating decisions about offers (See
Appendix Q)
Making Opportunity Oxford nominations
Providing feedback as per table below
Attending Faculty Moderation Meeting
iii) Communicating Decisions Responsibilities
Responsibility for communicating
invitation to interview decisions will be as follows:
Candidate Status
Responsible for Communicating Decisions
Deselected
College of Application
Shortlisted
Shortlist College
Responsibility for communicating
offer decisions will be as follows:
Candidate Status
Responsible for Communicating Decisions
39
Deselected
Shortlist College (not Second Interview College)
Offer
Offer College
iii) Feedback Responsibilities
Candidate outcome
College / Faculty
Not invited for
College of Application
interview
Faculty will supply information about selection to colleges to enable feedback.
Shortlisted but not
Shortlist College
made an offer
If the candidate has been second interviewed, the Shortlist College may
contact the Second Interview College for additional feedback information.
40
APPENDIX F: LNAT
Background
The Law National Admissions Test includes multiple choice questions and essay questions. The
multiple-choice element consists of a series of argumentative passages, with three or four
questions on each. The questions are designed to test powers of comprehension, interpretation,
analysis, synthesis, induction, and deduction. The questions do not test (and do not require)
knowledge of any subject except for the English language. Assessment of the multiple choice
section, which is machine marked out of 42, thus provides evidence relevant to each of the Oxford
Law Faculty general admissions criteria. The essay element requires the candidate to write one
essay from a choice of five questions on a range of subjects.
Candidates are given 40 minutes to write the essay. Although these typically require some
rudimentary knowledge of everyday subjects, the point is only to test the ability of the candidate to
argue economically to a conclusion with a good command of written English. This part of the test is
passed unmarked to law tutors at the University of Oxford.
Candidates must sit the LNAT at test centres round the world by 20 October 2020 except for 2nd
BA Rhodes Scholars who have until 4 December 2020 to do so. Only tests taken during the
admissions cycle are considered. Tests taken in previous years are void.
Candidates are told that neither registration nor the obtaining of a particular score in the multiple-
choice element of the LNAT guarantees that they will be admitted to a college. They are also told
that such registration or the obtaining of a specific LNAT score does not guarantee that they will be
invited to an interview at any individual college. Such decisions are for the admissions tutors at
each college. The multiple choice score of the LNAT (marked out of 42) will however be used as
part of the Law Faculty assessment and ranking system which is provided to assist tutors and the
Faculty Selection Committee in their selection decisions.
Late LNAT
The deadline for taking the LNAT is posted on the Law Faculty website, the main University
website, and the LNAT website. It is the responsibility of the candidate to ensure that they meet all
the required entrance criteria, including taking the required tests in good time. The University
Admissions Office (UAO) maintains this as a non-negotiable date to ensure that enough time is
available to process application through the colleges and or faculty within the deadlines set. It
does so to avoid the potentially serious knock-on effects to the admission process of extending the
deadline for candidates. UAO directs that extensions be given only on the following grounds:
Genuine mitigating circumstances including serious illness on the day of the test, bereavement, or
natural disaster are acceptable reasons for not taking the LNAT. Unacceptable reasons for not
taking the test generally include any kind of ignorance of our procedures, failure to get organised
on the part of the candidate, or seeking an exemption after the test date.
The Faculty position is to support this approach, and hence the Faculty will not accept late LNAT
result on any other grounds and will inform candidates along these lines if contacted. The Faculty
Selection Committee will not, therefore, accept late LNAT results.
Exemptions from the LNAT
Candidates may seek exemption from the LNAT for a number of reasons. Although it is ultimately
up to Colleges whether to grant exemption,
it would be greatly appreciated if any applications
for exemption could be referred to the Admissions Officer at the Law Faculty
(
) who will consider each application and recommend a course
of action in line with past decisions. Colleges are encouraged to discuss any issues with the
Admissions Officer at any stage. Applications will generally be considered in the light of the
following guidelines:
41
i) Illness
Where a candidate becomes ill and misses a test already booked, exemption may be granted if
medical evidence is supplied to the college. Where possible, candidates should book a test for a
different date. Provided there is medical evidence, an LNAT taken after the general deadline of
15
October will still be considered where possible. This will be limited .
ii) Family emergency or recent bereavement
The same guidelines will apply,
mutatis mutandis, where a candidate is unable to take the test
because of a family emergency or bereavement. Again,
15 October deadline may not be strictly
enforced in such circumstances.
iii) Availability of testing centre
There are some countries in which there is no LNAT test centre. Candidates from such countries
are exempted from taking the LNAT. Test centre locations are available online:
http://www.lnat.ac.uk/lnat-test/lnat-test-centres.aspx. Where there is a test centre in the
candidate’s country, an exemption should only be granted if the candidate is unable to reach it in
safety.
COVID-19: The Faculty is monitoring the situation with access to testing centres being restricted
due to Covid-19 measures. Faculty Selection Committee will evaluate the situation and requests
for exemption for Covid-19 based reasons as needed, following UAO policy, which states:
“The following will be considered extreme circumstances beyond the candidate's
and centre's control:
1. Serious illness
2. Bereavement
3. Natural disasters or conflict
4. Technical failure at a centre or by CAAT before the deadline which prevented on-
time processing (NB this must be reported promptly after the deadline and
evidenced)
5. Local lockdown that has closed centres where a candidate would be reasonably
able to travel to sit a test. We will ask CAAT to verify this closure.
We may ask for evidence to support claims where these circumstances apply.
The following will
not be considered extreme circumstances:
1. Being unaware of the test or of the need to register
2. Believing test registration to be automatic or
3. that the University invites students to register for the test after submission of their
UCAS application
4. School or centre error”
42
Marking
Multiple choice section
Marked externally
Marks are automatically imported into ADSS around
23 October 2020 (Week 2).
Multiple choice scores are marked out of 42. This score will form part of the Faculty assessment and
ranking of candidates.
Essay section
There is also an essay section which will be centrally marked by the Faculty via
comparative
marking. This system (described below in
Appendix G) will generate marks on ADSS for each
essay.
This is to ensure fair and consistent marking in line with UAO practices. Please contact the
Admissions Officer to suggest a suitable graduate student.
Essay marks will be available on ADSS by
Friday 30th October (Week 3).
The essay answer will be available on ADSS by the time colleges receive their shortlists.
The candidates’ essay answer is displayed in a separate browser window by clicking on the
link associated with the candidate’s LNAT number under the column ‘LNAT Essay’ on the
Test Scores page.
Any candidates with missing LNAT results will be contacted by the Admissions Officer by email for
their LNAT registration number so that a second search can be made on the LNAT database. If
you have any queries about missing LNAT test scores or essays, please check the “Comments”
box at the bottom of the “Candidate Information” page before contacting the Admissions Officer.
Candidates without LNAT scores will not be considered by Faculty Selection Committee for
selection for interview, unless an exemption has been granted or there are exceptional
circumstances. Evidence of exceptional circumstances will be considered centrally by the
Admissions Officer with consultation with the Admissions Coordinator.
Colleges retain their right to consider candidates with missing LNAT information (please discuss
with the Admissions Co-Ordinator if necessary).
43
APPENDIX G: MARKING PROCESS FOR LNAT ESSAYS
1. Nominating Markers
Essays will be marked by non-postholders (graduate students, stipendiary lecturers or equivalent)
to ensure parity of approach.
Each college will bear an equal share of the marking load, regardless of number of applications, to
equally support the centralised Admissions process.
Colleges may either:
Nominate their own non-postholder as their college marker; or
Request the Faculty provide details of a graduate student or similar who may undertake the
marking on the college’s behalf.
If colleges request a marker be made available, it is the college’s responsibility to:
Manage all aspects of hiring the suggested marker, including their contract and right to
work check;
Pay for the marker’s work.
College’s may use their discretion in selecting a rate of payment, but it is noted that the Faculty
has in the past used a rate of £4.60/essay but the Comparative Judgement approach is better
managed by an hourly rate. Colleges may set their own rate. The Faculty will use the research
assistant rate for any markers it engages to assist with the marking load.
LNAT markers must be identified to Faculty by
Thursday 8th October, 0th Week.
2. Marker Training
All markers must attend the LNAT marking training, which will cover:
LNAT Essay marking criteria
Applying the criteria
How to perform ‘comparative judgment’
How to use the software ‘No More Marking’
Training is compulsory. Markers who have not completed the training will not be given access to
the No More Marking system.
Training will be held on
Tuesday 20th October, Week 2 (in 2020 via Teams).
3. Marking Process
LNAT Essays will no longer be assigned raw scores by markers. Instead, a process known as
‘comparative judgement’ wil be used, supported by software named ‘No More Marking’.
1. What is Comparative Judgement?
The ‘Comparative judgement’ approach to marking is based on the fact that humans are much
better at differentiating between the quality of two alternatives than assigning a raw score to
represent how well something meets a criterion. Applied to essay marking, people are better at
saying which essay is best but less good at assigning the same raw score to each to represent
this. When numerous pairs of essays are compared across a range of different judges, a ranking
can be built in relation to the criteria being used, and everyone in the pool effectively contributes to
estimating the quality of the script.
44
UAO advises that Comparative Judgement marking is more likely to produce consistency of marks
across the whole cohort. It is also faster than traditional marking, particularly when factoring in
double and triple marking (which are not required).
2. Marking Criteria
LNAT essays are to be judged on three criteria:
1) Application: close attention to the question(s) asked and sustained and focussed treatment
of the issues.
2) Reasoning ability: well-drawn distinctions, a keen eye for relevance, awareness of more than
one possible line of argument, and an element of independent critical judgment.
3) Communication: clear and fluent writing and notable clarity and appropriateness of structure
and argument
Essays must be compared on all three criteria.
3. No More Marking system
Al LNAT marking wil occur via the ‘No More Marking’ system (NMM). LNAT essays will be
uploaded directly to NMM by UAO, having had all candidate information removed apart from
Candidate ID.
LNAT Markers will be registered on the system and allocated essays to mark. Judgements are
entered directly into the NMM system.
Markers will be able to access essays from
Thursday 22nd October, 2nd Week.
Deadline for entering comparative judgments on the NMM system is
5pm Thursday 29th October,
3rd Week.
Note: The NMM system tracks marker behaviour in two ways:
The extent to which their evaluations are in line with other markers; and
The time they take to evaluate pairs of essays.
Only the Admissions Co-Ordinator, the Admissions Officer and the No More Marking systems
administrators will see named tracking data. This will not be released to Faculty, FSC or
elsewhere. It will not be used to check whether and how well they have completed their work, nor
used to check timesheets and hours of work reported.
It will be used only to:
Enable FSC to make decisions about excluding markers whose marking appears to be
substantially out of line with other markers (evaluated anonymously).
Examine marker patterns as part of the ongoing reflective evaluation of Law Admissions.
4. Marking Scale
No More Marking system allows users to set the top and bottom of the scale of marks produced.
LNAT essays are marked on the Oxford scale, rather than 0–100.
The FSC will make a decision on setting the highest and lowest marks based on past LNAT mark
scales (excluding extreme outliers) to produce an accurate reflection of the range of Oxford scores.
This is likely to be in the range of 50 to 75.
5. Uploading Marks to ADSS
Once all judgements have been entered, NMM system will generate marks and these will be
uploaded to ADSS after discussion at the First Faculty Meeting.
45
Admissions tutors will then be able to access and download LNAT essays on ADSS as in the past,
but they will not be able to amend the marks entered on the system.
46
APPENDIX H: FACULTY SELECTION COMMITTEE
Faculty Selection Committee will meet twice. Its evaluations replace the need for colleges to
evaluate candidates for shortlisting.
Where necessary, the Faculty Selection Committee will take a view on how to deal with any
problems arising during Admissions (led by the Admissions Co-Ordinator).
The Faculty Selection Committee is to be guided at all times by the Law Faculty and the University
of Oxford’s stated objective on Admissions:
To attract applications from the most academically able individuals, irrespective of socio-
economic, ethnic or national origin;
To ensure applicants are selected for admission on the basis that they are well qualified
and have the most potential to excel in their chosen course of study;
To ensure that the prospects of admission are not affected by the college an applicant has
chosen or been assigned to through an open application.
1. Faculty Selection Committee Functions
The Faculty Selection Committee has
two core functions.
i) Assists the Admissions Co-Ordinator in making decisions in relation to Admissions process
as required.
These include matters within the Admissions Co-Ordinator’s authority, such as:
Setting upper and lower LNAT scores
Dealing with issues relating to individual applications
Making decisions about the application of Admissions rules and procedures
Issues relating to the running of the Admissions system
ii) Evaluates all candidates and decides which will be shortlisted
Produces a Shortlist of candidates who
must be interviewed
Produces a Rescue list of ‘near-miss’ WP candidates who
may be interviewed by colleges
wishing to interview over-ratio.
This shortlist is agreed by the Committee, based on the evaluations presented by Committee
members at the Second Committee meeting.
2. Committee Member Responsibilities
Each member of the Committee is expected to attend both meetings (see below).
Members are responsible for:
i) Evaluating their assigned cohort of candidate applications for shortlisting
This entails:
Considering all aspects of the candidate’s application, including:
o Academic achievements
o Contextual information (widening participation) and WP Banding
o Faculty Shortlisting rank
o References
o Personal Statement
o LNAT marks
o Any other information relevant to the selection criteria in the candidate’s application
47
Applying the criteria for selection for interview, paying particular attention to:
o Faculty’s commitment to widening participation
o Group differences in performance on certain metrics
Making shortlisting recommendations for each candidate, which will be presented at the
Second Committee meeting
o Recording recommendations and reasons in their spreadsheet
Committee members are expected to familiarise themselves with the sections of this manual
relating to
Appendix J (Widening Participation) and
Appendix K (Understanding the Data).
ii) Evaluating their assigned cohort of candidate applications for offers
This entails:
Considering all aspects of the candidate’s application (as above)
Taking account of:
o Interview ranking scores
o Candidate scores
o Candidate ranking scores
o College offer preferences
iii) Participating in all collective decision-making and recommendations on shortlisting, offers,
Opportunity Oxford and any other matters falling to the Faculty Selection Committee for
consideration.
Committee members are to make recommendations in accordance with the selection principles
detailed in
Appendix I.
Members are also encouraged to feedback all aspects of the Committee’s decision-making to their
college, and to bring any matters arising to the Committee for consideration as needed.
3. Composition of Faculty Selection Committee
Each college is
required to nominate one postholder to serve on the Committee every two years,
except Harris Manchester College, who will nominate a representative every year to assist in
evaluation of mature candidates.
Colleges are divided into two groups to indicate easily in which year they will be required to do so.
These are:
Group A
Group B
Balliol College
Pembroke College
Brasenose College
The Queen's College
Christ Church
Regent's Park College
Corpus Christi College
St Anne's College
Exeter College
St Catherine's College
Hertford College
St Edmund Hall
Jesus College
St Hilda's College
Keble College
St Hugh's College
Lady Margaret Hall
St John's College
Lincoln College
St Peter's College
Magdalen College
Somerville College
Mansfield College
Trinity College
Merton College
University College
New College
Wadham College
Oriel College
Worcester College
Harris Manchester College
48
The Committee will also include the Admissions Co-Ordinator and the Access and Outreach Co-
Ordinator. It will be chaired by the Admissions Co-Ordinator.
4. Widening Participation Sub-Committee
The Committee will select a sub-committee of five members plus the Access and Outreach Co-
Ordinator, who will be responsible for evaluating Band A and B candidates collectively. The
Admissions Co-Ordinator will oversee the process of selection, which will be carried out at the first
Faculty Selection Committee meeting. Committee membership must be agreed by the Faculty
Selection Committee.
The Access and Outreach Co-Ordinator will lead discussions on the committee and offer guidance
on how to evaluate Access candidate applications, but must follow the principles and guidance laid
out in this Manual.
The Admissions Co-Ordinator retains full responsibility for the allocation of candidates to
committee members and the process of evaluation, which must be in accordance with this
Admissions Manual.
All members of the WPSC are expected to have a thorough knowledge and understanding of the
use of contextual data in Admissions, which can be found in this Manual and also on the University
website at: https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-
oxford/decisions/contextual-data. The Access and Outreach Co-Ordinator can also offer guidance.
The WPSC will be supported by the Access and Outreach Officer,
), who will assist in providing further information as needed on access
aspects individual applications (as appropriate). She will also liaise with Access and Outreach
officers within colleges to obtain further relevant information on applications as needed and as
feasible. This will include:
Distributing a blinded list (organised by outreach region) of all Band A and B applicants to
colleges’ Access and Outreach Officers, who will be invited to offer any relevant information
they wish to provide on candidates for consideration by the WPSC;
Contacting colleges linked to specific regions where the WPSC requests additional
information on particular applications.
WPSC will be expected to meet prior to the submission of shortlisting recommendations to discuss
the Band A and Band B cohort as a whole. They will be free to elect when to meet.
Further information on Widening Participation is found in
Appendix J.
College-blind lists will be sent out on Tuesday 27th October (Week 3)
Deadline for Colleges to submit additional comments / information is noon Monday 2nd
November.
5. Harris Manchester College and Mature Candidates
The representative from Harris Manchester College will be responsible for evaluating all mature
candidates.
6. Meetings
Faculty Selection Committee meets twice between 3rd week and 6th week.
First meeting: Introduction and Allocation of Responsibilities (Friday, 3rd Week)
The first meeting will be held on
2pm Friday 30th October (Week 3) via Teams.
At this meeting, the following tasks are undertaken
49
Introduction to Committee functions, responsibilities and shortlisting process
Establishment of Widening Participation Sub-Committee
o Five Committee members will be asked to volunteer to join this committee (which
also includes the Access and Outreach Officer)
Allocation of candidate cohorts
o Committee members with particular knowledge of educational systems will be
assigned those candidates as a group
Eg HMC will evaluate mature candidates
Candidates from a particular country will be evaluated collectively
Training in Excel spreadsheets
Determination of any issues arising in the current not covered by the Admissions Manual.
Second meeting: Shortlisting (Monday, 6th Week)
Committee members
must submit their spreadsheets with recommendations for shortlisting by
5pm Wednesday 11th November, 5th week. The Admissions Officer and Admissions Co-Ordinator
will have collated and checked these to produce a master spreadsheet of recommendations.
The second meeting will be held on
10am Monday 16th November (Week 6) via Teams.
At the meeting, the master spreadsheet will be available on OneDrive and will be projected where
all members can view it (or, if virtually, via shared screen).
At this meeting, the following tasks are undertaken:
Consideration of each candidate and Committee members’ recommendations for
shortlisting
Agreement of a Shortlist of 2.5 candidates per place available
Agreement of a Rescue list of ‘near miss’ Band A and Band B candidates
In doing so, the Committee is to be guided by the principles in
Appendix I. The Committee must record a reason for deselection on ADSS (more than one reason may be
entered). Reasons are listed in
Appendix I.
7. Excel Training
Committee members need to be confident using Excel spreadsheets, particularly
Drop-down menus
Filter
Sort
All spreadsheets used by Committee will be set up by the Admissions Officer, using locked cells.
All Faculty Selection Committee members must complete a very short training session in Excel at
the end of the First Committee meeting to ensure that all spreadsheets are correctly filled out and
no errors occur. The training will be conducted by the Admissions Officer.
8. Timeline for Faculty Selection Committee
Michaelmas
Week 3
First Faculty Selection Committee meeting (Introduction)
2pm
Friday 30th October
Week 4
Faculty Selection Committee receives allocated applications evaluation
5pm Monday
2nd November
50
Week 5
Faculty Selection Committee submits recommendations spreadsheets
5pm Wednesday
11th November
Week 6
Second Faculty Selection Committee meeting (Shortlisting)
10am Monday
16th November
51
APPENDIX I: SHORTLISTING AND ALLOCATION OF CANDIDATES
Under the new centralised system, shortlisting for interview is now conducted by the Faculty
Selection Committee, rather than colleges. Colleges will receive, via ADSS, the list of candidates
they will need to interview once the Faculty Selection Committee has made its shortlisting
decisions.
Shortlisting will be conducted
college-blind. Only the Admissions Co-Ordinator and Admissions
Officer will be able to see college information about candidates. Neither will make shortlisting
recommendations (but the Admissions Co-Ordinator will oversee the process of shortlisting).
Blinding wil then be removed and colleges may ‘rescue’ further candidates to interview over-ratio
(in accordance with the principles below).
1. Missing Information
It is often the practice of colleges to contact candidates with missing predictions and ask for such
predictions to be provided by a relevant person. The Faculty Admissions Officer now takes on this
role pre-shortlisting. Once shortlisting is complete, colleges will then become responsible.
If a college is contacted by a candidate pre-shortlisting, and such evidence is received,
please forward it to the Admissions Officer to upload to ADSS3
(xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxxx@xxx.xx.xx.xx). As this may reveal information about a
candidate’s college of application, the college is asked not to share this information with
Admitting Tutors to maintain blinding.
2. ADSS Rankings, WP Banding and Categorisation of Candidates
3 In Attachment slot 3.
52
3. Shortlisting Process
The Committee will produce:
1. A Shortlist of 2.5*N(f) candidates; and
2. A Rescue list of ‘near-miss’ Band A/B candidates
The Faculty Selection Committee will be guided by the Shortlisting Ranking as an indicator of
academic potential, but will consider each candidate individually and is not bound by the
Shortlisting Ranking. It will be mindful of the limitations of ranking via metrics generally, and those
related to LNAT and cGCSE scores noted in this Manual (see
Appendix K and also the
Introduction).
Note: If they wish to do so, Colleges may submit relevant information about a candidate or school
to the Faculty Selection Committee for consideration. The Access and Outreach Officer,
will circulate a list of Band A/B applicants (college-blind) to all College Access / Outreach
Officers and invite submissions if colleges wish to make them (to be sent
5pm Thursday 29th
October Week 3)
These must be sent to
by
5pm, Monday 2nd November and will be
considered by the Committee in making its shortlisting decisions. It is envisaged that this will be
information obtained by a college via:
Outreach activities (with candidates or schools)
Contact with particular candidates
Information held by the college about particular schools
Colleges are not required to submit such information, the process is entirely optional, but the Law
Faculty encourages colleges to collaborate with it to share relevant access information to support
widening participation.
53
4. Shortlisting Principles
1. General Principles
Faculty Shortlisting Committee will produce the Shortlist in accordance with the following general
principles:
All candidates will be evaluated against the Faculty selection criteria outlined in
Appendix I. A reason for deselection must be provided
Shortlisting ranking should guide but not bind
Shortlisting decisions wil be based on consideration of all aspects of the candidate’s
application, including:
o Academic achievements
o Predicted to achieve the required standard in qualifications
o Contextual information (widening participation) and WP Banding
o Faculty Shortlisting rank
o References
o Personal Statement
o LNAT marks
o Any other information relevant to the selection criteria in the candidate’s application
In applying the criteria for selection for interview, particular attention will be paid to:
o Faculty’s commitment to widening participation
o Group differences in performance on certain metrics
Outstanding strength in one field may compensate for weakness in another. Extenuating
circumstances will be taken into account.
Required standard qualifications:
A-level
AAA in any subject except for General Studies
International Baccalaureate
38 + inc. Bonus points (with at least 6,6,6 in
higher level papers)
European Baccalaureate
An average of 85% or above, with scores of
between 8 and 9 in specified subjects
Scottish Candidates
AA in Advanced Highers plus either a B in a
third Advanced Higher or an A in a Standard
Higher (where that Standard Higher is in a
different subject from each of the Advanced
Highers)
2nd BAs
2:1 class degree or equivalent, or, in the case
of mature candidates, at least a second class
degree (normally at 2:1 level) or strong and
convincing evidence of the candidate’s
achievements and future promise at an
equivalent level to a good 2:1 degree.
Senior Status
First class or its equivalent. This criteria may
not be applied as strictly by colleges who admit
candidates for two years and one term.
Guidance as to equivalency for predicted international grades can be found on this website.
If a candidate has not achieved, or is not predicted to achieve, the required standard in A-Level or
equivalent examinations (or, where relevant, in a first undergraduate degree), then, in the absence
of exceptional circumstances, that candidate will not be invited for interview.
54
There are additional language requirements for Course 2 applicants. Please refer to
Appendix b)
2. Specific principles
55
3. Reasons for Deselection
If a candidate is not selected for interview, one of the following reasons must be entered on ADSS.
More than one reason may be entered.
Reason 1: GCSE/equivalent score not at highest level + LNAT performance not at highest level
Reason 2: Poor GCSE/equiv score not compensated by strength elsewhere in the application
Reason 3: LNAT performance is not at the highest level
Reason 3a: Poor LNAT MC not compensated by strength elsewhere in the application
Reason 3b: Poor LNAT Essay not compensated by strength elsewhere in the application
Reason 4a:
Has not obtained/is not predicted to obtain 3 A’s at A-Level or equivalent.
Reason 4b:
Has not obtained/is not predicted to obtain A Levels or equivalents at the highest level.
Note: In applying this criteria, the expectation is that a candidate must achieve the
level of attainment required in one, primary sitting, unless there is a clear and objective
explanation for the initial shortcoming e.g. first exams affected by bereavement etc.
Similarly, a candidate shall not be penalised for having e.g. completed one A-Level
early after following an accelerated course.
Reason 5:
Insufficient Information (chiefly for candidates not providing evidence of any
existing/predicted qualifications or equivalent; and for candidates who have failed to
take the LNAT and have not received an exemption or extension)
5. Allocation of Shortlisted Candidates
Candidates will be allocated in line with the Allocation Principles in 4.2 below. However, colleges
may express preferences about that allocation (4.1). These are indicated in the Allocation
Principles.
1. College Preferences
College preferences about the allocation of their Shortlisted Candidates must be submitted by
5pm
Thursday 29th October (Week 3) via the circulated form. The Admissions Co-Ordinator will
allocated candidates in accordance with these preferences as far as possible.
Colleges not expressing preferences will be allocated candidates in line with the general principles.
2. Allocation Principles for Shortlisted Candidates
1. All College shortlists will comprise 1*N(col) Category 1 candidates.
Colleges will be allocated their Category 1 candidates up to 1*N(col) candidates.
56
Where a college has
more Category 1 applicants than places, the extra Category 1
candidates wil be real ocated to another College’s shortlist.
Where a college has
fewer Category 1 applicants than places, they will be reallocated
Category 1 candidates for other colleges sufficient for their Shortlist to contain 1*N(col)
Category 1 candidates.
Category 1 candidates will be reallocated as follows:
Top 1*N(col) ranked Category 1 candidates will be shortlisted to their college of application
Remaining Category 1 candidates will be reallocated
o Reallocation will be via Average Means Distribution to achieve equally strong
Category 1 cohorts across colleges (insofar as is possible)
Colleges may express a preference to retain any Band A/B Category 1 candidates
who applied to them
o If these Band A/B Category 1 candidates are not in the Top 1*N(col) rank, they will
displace the lowest ranked Top 1*N(col) ranked Category 1 candidate, who will be
reallocated
Example
College A has 10 places. It receives 100 applications, of which 15 are ranked Category 1. The 12th
ranked Category 1 candidate is Band A (‘Candidate #12’).
College B has 10 places. It receives 100 applications, of which 5 are Category 1.
College A will be
automatically allocated it’s 10 top-ranked Category 1 candidates. If (and only if) it
has expressed a preference to retain its Band A/B Category 1 candidates, it will be manually
allocated Candidate #12, and its 11th ranked Category 1 candidate will be reallocated.
College B will retain all of its Category 1 candidates and will be reallocated 5 more Category 1
candidates from other colleges.
2. All College shortlists will comprise 1.5*N other candidates shortlisted by Faculty
Remaining shortlisted candidates will be reallocated according to Average Means Distribution. This
aims to ensure all colleges have candidate cohorts of similar strength.
However,
colleges may express preferences about this stage of reallocation. They may elect
to:
Retain any Band A/B candidates who applied to their college
o Colleges may elect to:
Retain all Band A/B
Retain a certain number of Band A/B
o Such candidates would be reserved to the college of application rather than
reallocated
Receive Band A/B candidates ahead of other shortlisted candidates on reallocation
o Colleges will need to indicate how many Band A/B candidates they would wish to
receive before having their remaining Allocated shortlist filled with other candidates
Colleges
cannot elect to receive Rescue candidates to fill their shortlist (these candidates
may only be received
in addition to the shortlisted candidates)
Colleges electing not to express preferences will have candidates reallocated solely by Average
Means Distribution.
Note: These preferences will be applied manually by the Admissions Officer as they cannot be
managed via ADSS. It is a means by which college preferences can be reflected within a
centralised system, while retaining full college blinding.
57
6. Rescuing Candidates
Colleges may also elect to interview additional candidates above ratio (that is, more than the 2.5
candidates per place they will be allocated and required to interview).
This can be done in two ways:
Requesting candidates to be allocated from the FSC’s ‘near miss’ Rescue list
Electing to rescue any other non-shortlisted Band A/B candidate
Colleges
must communicate their rescue intentions to the Admissions Co-Ordinator by
4pm
Wednesday 18th November (Week 6). These will be via Microsoft Form, but Colleges are free to
contact the Admissions Co-Ordinator to discuss if needed.
1. Rescue List Candidates
Faculty Selection Committee (guided by the WP Sub-Committee) wil produce a list of ‘near-miss’
Band A and B candidates who have not been shortlisted but who may invited for interview if
colleges wish to interview more candidates than they have been assigned. This system replaces
(but largely replicates) the previous ‘rescue pool’ system.
Colleges will be asked to indicate how many Rescue candidates (if any) they would be prepared to
see over and above their Assigned candidates (ie over-ratio) once they have seen their shortlisted
candidates.
Rescue candidates will be treated as follows:
Rescue candidates will be shortlisted in the order assigned by the Faculty Selection
Committee
o They will take account of but not be bound by the Faculty Shortlisting ranking.
o Ordering will account for WP factors and any further information provided by
colleges
Rescue candidates will be allocated as follows:
o To their College of Application; or
o If their College of Application has not chosen to interview rescue candidates, to a
random college that has so chosen
The list of Near-Miss Candidates will be shared (via OneDrive) so that colleges can see which
candidates they may receive (and hence may then elect to rescue others not included on the
Faculty Rescue List).
Note: Colleges are not permitted to select which Rescue candidates they are allocated; candidates
will be allocated in the order the FSC has produced.
However, it is always open for colleges to make a case that they be allocated a particular
candidate from the Rescue list (rather than receiving the candidate that would have been allocated
to them). The Admissions Co-Ordinator will make a determination in consultation with the FSC.
2. College Rescue of Candidates
Colleges may also rescue any candidates neither shortlisted nor placed on the Rescue List by the
FSC. Such candidates may be rescued
ahead of those on the Rescue List by colleges wishing to
do so.
Colleges who would like to rescue a candidate must contact the Admissions Co-Ordinator,
who will allocate these candidates to that college.
Where more than one college wishes to rescue a candidate, the Admissions Co-Ordinator will
decide to which college the candidate is allocated (giving preference to the College of Application).
58
7. Opportunity Oxford
In accordance with the University’s Opportunity Oxford programme, once the Faculty shortlist has
been finalised, the Admissions Co-Ordinator will consult with the Opportunity Oxford lead on
places available on the scheme and targets, as set out in the guidance:
“Once shortlisting has been completed, Admissions Coordinators are asked to review their
shortlists and, in collaboration with the Opportunity Oxford Coordinator, estimate the approximate
number of offers to be made under the scheme in their subject. The Opportunity Oxford
Coordinator and the Admissions Coordinator will then agree a target intake for the subject,
expressed as
x ±
y.” [Source: Opportunity Oxford briefing note,
Appendix J]
8. Timeline for Shortlisting
The timeline for shortlisting and allocation is as follows:
Week 6
Second Faculty Selection Committee meeting (Shortlisting)
10am Monday
16th November
Week 6
ADSS reallocation is run and shortlisted candidates allocated on ADSS.
Tuesday 17th November
College blinding removed
Week 6
Colleges will be able to see their shortlisted of candidates for interview (on ADSS)
Wednesday 18th
November
Near-Miss Rescue list will be shared on OneDrive.
Deadline for colleges to express preferences (via Form) is 4pm
Places for additional interviews for Rescue candidates
Indicating candidates a college wishes to rescue (not on Faculty Rescue List)
Week 6
Allocation of rescue candidates by Faculty
Thursday 19th
November
All candidate statuses confirmed on ADSS by Faculty and colleges notified at 3pm
Week 6
Colleges to send Interview invitations
Friday 20th November
Colleges to book language test appointments with
Note: To avoid confusion / clashes, the Admissions Co-Ordinator will be responsible for changing
candidate status on ADSS. It is
imperative that colleges wishing to rescue candidates not on the
Faculty Shortlist inform the Admissions Co-Ordinator of the candidates they wish to rescue.
Colleges
must not contact candidates until the Admissions Co-Ordinator announces that all
shortlisting, rescue and deselection decisions have been finalised (
3pm Thursday 19th November
Week 6).
9. Contacting Candidates Once Shortlisting is Complete
To avoid confusion / conflicting information being sent to candidates, the following process and
responsibilities apply to contacting candidates.
No candidates should be contacted until after the Admissions Co-Ordinator has announced
that decisions have been finalised.
All information about candidate status should be obtained from ADSS.
Colleges wishing to rescue candidates not on the Faculty Near-Miss list
must inform the
Admissions Co-Ordinator of these intentions so that they can allocate those candidates and
change their status on ADSS.
Responsibility for communicating decisions will be as follows:
Candidate Status
Responsible for Communicating Decisions
Deselected
College of Application
59
Shortlisted
Shortlist College
Note: To avoid conflicting information being sent, Colleges are requested
not to send letters
expressing information about what another College may do. Eg, please do not inform
candidates that they have not been invited to interview at your college, but will be interviewed at
another college.
60
APPENDIX J: WIDENING PARTICIPATION
The Law Faculty is committed to the widening participation, and this is reflected at various points in
this Manual. This appendix collates guidance from the University on Widening Participation, which
should be drawn upon throughout the Admissions process.
The Faculty is committed to working to achieve the targets set by the University in its Access and
Participation Plan for 2020–24 as they related to access. These are:
Target 1: to reduce the gap in participation rates for disadvantaged students (ACORN) to
3:1 by 2024-25.
Target 2: to reduce the gap in participation rates for under-represented students (POLAR4)
to 8:1 by 2024-25.
Admitting Tutors are strongly encouraged to keep these targets and the following information in
mind when making candidate evaluations.
1. Collaborative Access Approach
The Law Faculty is keen not to work collaboratively with colleges to widen participation, and draw
on their knowledge and expertise. College blinding means that Faculty, rather than colleges, will
evaluate candidates at shortlisting stage. However, the Faculty will work with colleges and the
Outreach and Access Officer will be in contact with them to request information. A list of contacts
for college officers is included below, and the Band A and Band B list will be shared with these
contacts before shortlisting.
Via the Access and Outreach Officer, information on particular candidates may also be sought
from link colleges for that candidate’s region. Regions and their link colleges are listed here:
https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/teachers/link-colleges.
College Outreach and Access Contacts
College
Outreach
Outreach Contact Email (for
Direct Email (internal)
TEL:
Officer
external)
01865
2
Balliol
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xx.xx.xx
Brasenose
xxxxxxx@xxx.xx.xx.xx
Christ
xxxxxx.xxxxxxx@xxxx.xx.xx.xx
Church
Christ
xxxxxx.xxxxxxx@xxxx.xx.xx.xx
Church
Corpus
xxxxxxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxx.xx.xx.xx
Christi
Exeter
xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxx.xx.xx.xx
Hertford
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xx.xx.xx
Jesus
xxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxx.xx.xx.xx
Jesus
Keble
xxxxxx.xxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xx.xx.xx
61
Keble
LMH
LMH
Lincoln
Magdalen
Magdalen
Mansfield
Mansfield
Merton
New
New
Oriel
Pembroke
Queen's
Queen's
Somerville
Somerville
St Anne's
St Anne's
St Anne's
St
Catherine's
St
Catherine's
St Edmund
Hall
St Hilda's
St Hugh's
St John's
62
St John's
St Peter's
Trinity
Trinity
Trinity
University
Wadham
Wadham
Worcester
Worcester
2. Bands of Disadvantage
63
3. Access Candidates Who Exceed the Standard Offer but Are Not
Taken
The APR of Law analysed A-level students who exceeded the A-level requirement, and achieve at
least A*AA regardless of whether or not they receive an offer.
If found that (see Figure 9d).
Deselected. Of those desummoned (not shortlisted), 33% go on to exceed the basic
requirements. This is an average of 153 a year; of these,
around 11 are WP flagged.
Rejected after interview. Of those shortlisted but not given an offer, 55% go on to exceed
the basic requirements. This is around 136 a year (in addition to those in the previous
bullet point);
around 13 of these are WP flagged.
Offer holders. Of those with offers, 69% over the period exceeded their offer. (However,
from Figure 4j we can assume this has gone down over the period in question).
In sum, around 24 WP-flagged candidates a year are not made an offer but go on to exceed
the basic offer. This means we are failing to make offers to a number of very good Access
candidates and we should work to improve.
Admitting tutors are asked to take this into account in shortlisting (the FSC) and making offers to
Band A/B candidates and to proactively pursue an improvement in the rate at which strong Access
candidates are made offers.
64
Figure 9d. Proportion of A-level candidates exceeding their offer (achieving at least AAA*)
80%
60%
40%
71%
69%
56%
55%
49%
20%
33%
35%
33%
17%
0%
WP = N
WP = Y
All
Deselected before interview
Shortlisted, no offer
All with offer
Note: ‘all’ includes overseas A-level candidates, who do not have WP flag status
4. Benchmarking
The Banding system was only introduced in the 2020 UCAS Round, so we have a mixed set of
data. Under the old system, candidates were flagged ‘WP’. Law’s performance on WP is
summarised in the table below.
All WP
Ucas Cycle
applicants
All offers
Proportion with offer
2010
58
5
9%
2011
69
7
10%
2012
97
20
21%
2013
142
23
16%
2014
124
21
17%
2015
126
23
18%
2016
149
26
17%
2017
153
23
15%
2018
203
37
18%
2019
225
49
22%
2020 cycle (2019/20) is our ‘best year’ and hence the year to which we wil benchmark. As we
have Banding information for that year, we will be able to benchmark to that year
by percentage
of shortlist / offers.
Contextual bands
All applicants
Shortlisted
% Total Shortlist
Offered
% Total Offers
A
234
106 (45%)
14.4%
47 (20%)
17.3%
B
283
119 (42%)
16.2%
41 (15%)
15.1%
C
232
115 (49.5%)
15.7%
45 (19%)
16.5%
D
164
87 (53%)
11.8%
40 (24%)
14.7%
N/A
971
306 (31.5%)
41.7%
99 (10%)
36.4%
Grand Total
1884
733
272
65
5. Opportunity Oxford
These principles are based on the Briefing Note on Opportunity Oxford approved by the
Admissions Executive on 11 October 2019 (as written
Opportunity Oxford Coordinator
13 October 2019, edited by
d for Law Admissions Manual)
a) The Programme
Under the Opportunity Oxford scheme, participating colleges earmark places for students coming
from defined disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds, who might otherwise narrowly
miss out on an offer. Students admitted under the scheme are made the standard conditional offer
for their course and are required to participate in an intensive bridging programme, which will help
students to develop core academic skills relevant to their future degree, and strategies for effective
independent learning at university. It will also offer them an opportunity to acclimatise to life in
Oxford. The bridging programme permits and supports the admissions decision that might not
otherwise be made by helping admitting tutors to feel confident in making offers to students of
great potential who have been less prepared and supported than their more advantaged peers.
b) Targets for Widening Access
When the establishment of Opportunity Oxford was approved last year, it was agreed that the
scheme must contribute meaningfully to the University’s ability to meet the targets set out in its
Access and Participation Plan for 2020 – 24.
The Access and Participation Plan was approved by the Office for Students in September 2019,
and includes two targets, which are outcomes-based, which relate to widening access to the
University:
Target 1: to reduce the gap in participation rates for disadvantaged students (ACORN) to
3:1 by 2024-25.
Target 2: to reduce the gap in participation rates for under-represented students (POLAR4)
to 8:1 by 2024-25.
Target 1 requires an increase in students admitted from ACORN Categories 4 and 5 of about 150
per year over the next five years. This increase represents 75% of the students to be admitted
under the new bridging programme once at steady state.
Target 2 requires an increase in students admitted from POLAR4 Quintile 1 of about 80 per year
over the next five years. This increase represents 40% of the students to be admitted under the
new bridging programme once at steady state.
Some candidates will be both ACORN-flagged and POLAR-flagged and so will count towards both
targets.
c) Eligibility for Opportunity Oxford
66
d) Applications
There is no separate application process for Opportunity Oxford. There is no separate pool of
applicants and no separate nomination process.
e) The role of Tutors and Admissions Tutors
Opportunity Oxford is designed to encourage the admission of very able students who are still not
being selected, rather than a blanket programme for disadvantaged candidates. Therefore, it
applies only to those who would otherwise
not have been made an offer – OO candidates are
those being admitted who would have been rejected, but will not be
because they can undertake
the OO programme.
When nominating a student for a place under Opportunity Oxford, colleges are asked to hold
closely to the principle that this scheme is for students who would otherwise narrowly miss out. A
degree of self-policing will be necessary, and the roles of the Admissions Tutor and the Senior
Tutor are likely to be crucial.
f) The role of Admissions Coordinators
Admissions Coordinators will have an essential role in ensuring the smooth operation of
Opportunity Oxford. There are two stages in the process where their input will be crucial. The first
is at shortlisting and the second is at the final decision-making stage.
g) Shortlisting
Candidates who are eligible for Opportunity Oxford will go through the same shortlisting process as
any other candidate, according to the norms that apply in their chosen subject. As is currently the
case, tutors are encouraged to consider rescuing candidates from under-represented or
disadvantaged backgrounds who are at risk of narrowly missing out. In particular, tutors are asked
to have regard for Opportunity Oxford eligibility when making marginal decisions. Please
remember that eligibility will be flagged on ADSS.
Once shortlisting has been completed, Admissions Coordinators are asked to review their
shortlists and, in collaboration with the Opportunity Oxford Coordinator, estimate the approximate
number of offers to be made under the scheme in their subject. The Opportunity Oxford
Coordinator and the Admissions Coordinator will then agree a target intake for the subject,
expressed as
x ±
y.
The basis on which estimates are made will be agreed subject-by-subject. In general, the rough
rule of thumb is that most subjects aim to interview three candidates per place, one would expect
67
eligible candidates ranked in the top third to gain a place in the usual way, and so it is the number
of eligible candidates in the middle third that will serve as the best guide to the number of places
that might conceivably be filled under the scheme.
h) Final decisions
Tutors nominate candidates for a place under the scheme according to their best academic
judgement within the norms operated in their subject. Admissions Coordinators have discretion to
confirm nominations up to the agreed
x ±
y maximum for their subject. Should there be more
suitable candidates than the agreed maximum, the Admissions Coordinator may request the
release of additional places by the Opportunity Oxford Coordinator.
So far, so straightforward. The more complex aspect of the Admissions Coordinator’s role
concerns moderation. Though it is hoped that colleges will nominate only marginal candidates for
the scheme, it is nonetheless necessary that the Admissions Coordinator has due regard for the
final post-interview ranking when confirming Opportunity Oxford places. An eligible candidate who
falls in the top tiers of the final ranking must not be made an offer under the scheme, but instead
should be made a standard offer in the usual way. It is eligible candidates who are just beyond the
notional cut-off, but in whom admitting tutors have confidence, to whom offers should be made
under the scheme. It is for Admissions Coordinators to give direction where necessary.
i) Open offers and reallocation
Eligible candidates may be made offers at the college to which they have applied, at a college to
which they have been reallocated, through the open offer scheme, or at a college to which they
have been reallocated post-interview through the normal moderation processes. Admissions
Tutors and Admissions Coordinators are invited to use their best efforts to promote cross-college
moderation, so as to ensure both that colleges are able to admit eligible students and that eligible
students do not miss out.
j) The Admissions Executive has approved the following recommendations:
Candidates are eligible to be admitted under Opportunity Oxford if they BOTH have any
one of the ACORN categories 4 and 5 flag, the POLAR4 quintile 1 flag, and the in-care flag,
AND they are classed as Band A under the composite measure.
Flagged candidates falling in Band B may also be admitted under the scheme should space
permit, but priority is given to candidates in Band A.
Colleges may make a case to the Opportunity Oxford Coordinator for the admission under
the scheme of a student who is not flagged, but such instances will be very rare,
supernumerary, and must be supported by clear evidence of disadvantage.
Admissions Coordinators have discretion to confirm the nomination of eligible students in
their subject up to an agreed maximum. The Opportunity Oxford Coordinator may release
additional places in a given subject if the field justifies it.
Tutors, and most especially Admissions Tutors and Admissions Coordinators, must have
regard to pre-interview and/or post-interview rankings when nominating and approving
students for admission under the scheme so as to ensure that the scheme effectively
identifies eligible students who might otherwise miss out.
68
APPENDIX K: UNDERSTANDING THE DATA AND GROUP DIFFERENCES IN
PERFORMANCE
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
APPENDIX L: LAW APR ANALYSIS OF CGCSE SCORE
78
79
80
81
APPENDIX M: INTERVIEWING CANDIDATES
1. Assessing interviews
Interview questions may include:
legally-related questions
more general intellectual puzzles calling for analysis of a type similar to legal analysis.
Many law tutors will present candidates with a short extract from a judgment or newspaper article
(two or three sides of A4) and discuss this with them during the interview (having given them half
an hour to read the extract beforehand).
Note: Law A-level is not a required subject, and therefore knowledge of the law, other than
such knowledge as can be learned from such an extract, if any, is not being assessed and
is irrelevant to the assessment of the interview.
Interviewers will be looking for evidence relevant to each of the general admissions criteria.
Reflecting these criteria in turn, high scoring interviews will normally exhibit:
1)
Application: a high degree of concentration on the matter under discussion, free of
distraction and digression, and a clear enthusiasm for pursuing a problem to its solution;
2)
Reasoning ability: thoughtful reactions to novel problems or novel versions of a problem
posed by the interviewers, an ability to maintain a line of argument free of contradiction or
equivocation (evidence of which may include quick detection by the candidate of
contradictions or equivocations in what the interviewer or the candidate has said), and an
ability to break free from a line of thinking which is proving unproductive;
3)
Communication: clear responses carefully articulated.
Interviewers may ask questions about the candidate’s interests and enthusiasms in order to ease
the candidate into the interview proper, or in order to assess the candidate’s motivation. The
candidate’s general accomplishments, tastes and virtues are irrelevant except insofar as they bear
on one or more of the general admissions criteria.
Colleges may arrive at a final interview score out of 10, but will need to rank all interviewed
candidates and enter their rank on ADSS (see further
Appendix O)
2. Interviews for non-UK applicants
The Faculty advises all colleges to follow the guidance and advice from the Undergraduate
Admissions Office as to how interviews for overseas candidates should be conducted. Guidance
taken from the Undergraduate Admissions Office website:
Students holding a passport from the European Economic Area (EU and Norway,
Iceland and Liechtenstein) and Switzerland
These
candidates are expected to attend the interview in Oxford if they would like their application
to be considered.
Students from other regions of the World
i. Visa nationals If you are a student from a country which requires a visitor visa before travelling to the UK we
anticipate there will be insufficient time for you to obtain a visitor visa to come to Oxford. This is
due to the short time frame between shortlisting in November and the interview period in Oxford in
December. If you cannot attend the interview in Oxford, the college which is considering your
82
application may choose to interview you by telephone or video call but such an interview cannot be
guaranteed.
ii. Non-visa nationals
If you are a student from a country where you can ask to be given permission to enter as a visitor
on arrival in the UK (you do NOT need a visa). You would need to show you have the finances to
support yourself during your stay and produce the letter inviting you to interview when you arrive in
the UK. We would recommend that students in this situation do try to attend an interview in Oxford
in December if shortlisted. However, we understand that students from other parts of the world
may not be able to travel at short notice. In this case the college which is considering your
application may choose to interview you by telephone or video call but such an interview cannot be
guaranteed.
83
APPENDIX N: EVALUATING MATURE AND SENIOR STATUS CANDIDATES
This section has been contributed by Harris Manchester College, as they have particular experience
in evaluating Mature candidates.
Mature and Senior Status candidates can be difficult to evaluate in the wider cohort of applicants.
These notes offer some guidance on evaluating applications and conducting interviews.
Applicants for the senior status program will almost invariably be mature (given the definition of
mature as those over the age of 21), but not all mature students will be applying for the senior status
program, and in a typical year the majority do not.
The Category 1 automatic shortlisting principle will not apply to Senior Status candidates.
The Faculty Shortlisting Ranking should be approached with considerable caution in relation to
Senior Status and Mature candidates.
1. Evaluating applications by mature students: some general points
Applications by mature students are, of course, to be assessed by reference to the same admissions
criteria as non-mature applicants, and their applications must be assessed in the round, in the same
way as all other applications must be. There are, however, some special features of applications by
mature students, or at least by some mature students, that should be borne in mind when conducting
this process.
First, and perhaps most importantly, many applications by mature students will feature evidence of
attainment going beyond GCSEs, and often beyond A-levels. Where there is evidence of attainment
subsequent to GCSEs, it may not be appropriate to give an applicant’s GCSE score, and any ranking
associated with that score, anywhere near the weight that such evidence is given in relation to school
leaver applicants. For example:
a. in the case of a student with a poor GCSE score (and any associated ranking) who has
gone on to achieve an excellent first degree in a subject other than law, the poor GCSE
score may have little or no relevance in assessing future potential as a law student, given
the range of other evidence.
b. an applicant who has achieved A levels or equivalent at an outstanding level may have
a stronger application than an applicant with the same GCSE score who has not yet
achieved A levels or equivalent.
When reviewing applications, care should be taken to note where an applicant has progressed
beyond GCSEs to attain A levels or equivalent, or to begin or complete university studies. Particular
care should be taken to avoid prejudicing an applicant’s prospects of an offer on the basis of a poor
GSCE score where there is subsequent evidence of academic achievement, as in example (a)
above. Of course, it may also be that subsequent evidence of poor attainment such as weak
performance in a first degree at Oxford or elsewhere may mean that a candidate with a high GSCE
score is not given an interview place (in the absence of extenuating circumstances, which naturally
are relevant to assessing an application in the round in the usual way).
Secondly, when it comes to the evaluation of LNAT essay scores, it should be noted that the
assessment of applications in the round may result in LNAT scores being given a different weight
for some mature student applications compared to school leaver applications. For example:
A weak essay from a mature applicant who has recently obtained an degree in the social sciences
or humanities, in which they would have been writing essays at university level, may be regarded as
more problematic than an essay with an equivalent mark from a school leaver.
a. Conversely, a mature student applicant who has not been engaged in formal study for a
lengthy period may be less familiar with essay writing style than a recent school leaver and
84
this may be given due weight (although of course an essay would still be expected to show
the applicant’s reasoning ability, including their ability to separate relevant from irrelevant and
their capacity for cogent argument, as well as their ability to express ideas clearly, in line with
the selection criteria).
2. Interviewing mature students
Colleagues will all be very familiar with our duties in relation to direct and indirect discrimination and
the public sector equality duty under the Equality Act 2010, in respect of which age is one of a
number of relevant protected characteristics. There may be a particular risk of age discrimination in
‘in-person’ aspects of an application process, where age may be more obvious than in an ‘on-paper’
process. Naturally this must be guarded against.
As with all applications, our focus must be solely on the selection criteria, and we must be very
careful to identify and interrogate any assumptions we make in assessing evidence of conformity to
these criteria to avoid introducing unlawful discrimination into our assessment. For example:
a. No assumption should be made of incompatibility between caring responsibilities (which may
be particularly prevalent among mature candidates, and especially female mature
candidates) and the necessary time commitment to perform to the required standard on the
course.
b. It hopefully also goes without saying that a perception of “fit” by a mature student in an
undergraduate population that is composed mostly of school leavers is totally irrelevant to an
admissions decision and liable to amount to unlawful discrimination (in fact, we are very
fortunate to attract a significant number of outstanding mature student applications each
year, including numerous applications from students with a first class degree in another
subject from Oxford, as well as many other leading universities, many of whom accept an
offer to study law with us).
It should be noted that some school leaver applicants will be prepared for an Oxford interview in a
way that some mature student applicants may not. Each year, for example, a proportion of mature
student applications are from applicants whose personal circumstances led to the suspension of
high school studies, and who later in life achieved A levels or equivalent by correspondence, before
eventually applying for University. Such applicants must of course be assessed by reference to the
same criteria as any other. But it should be borne in mind that they may be particularly nervous or
underprepared for an Oxford interview, in the same way that some school leaver applicants will be
more nervous than others given differential access to interview skills training and other similar
coaching. As an additional point, in designing the single interview that each applicant will be given,
we must take care not to assume that the applicant has recently taken A levels so as to disadvantage
those who have not.
3. Senior status applications
Senior status applicants (who already have a prior degree in another subject, and wish to take a
condensed version of the Oxford law degree with no electives) should only be allocated an interview
place at colleges that offer the senior status program.
Some colleges offer a six-term senior status program, and others (including Harris Manchester
College) only a seven-term senior status program. This, again, should be reflected in the interview
allocation, such that (for example) a senior status applicant who only wishes to be considered for
six-terms should not be allocated to an interview at a seven-term only college.
The published information on admissions criteria explains that, because the senior status program
is truncated and students do not have the opportunity to learn through the Law Moderations
examination process, the admissions criteria are applied more strictly to senior-status applicants,
particularly in relation to the six-term version of the program:
85
As a result, colleges that consider accepting postgraduate applicants with Senior Status for Oxford's
BA in law generally apply stricter academic criteria to those applicants than they do to undergraduate
applicants who wish to study for the same programmes over their full durations. Successful Senior
Status applicants will normally be predicted to achieve or have achieved a first class degree or
equivalent, or, in the case of mature applicants, strong and convincing evidence of the applicant's
achievements and future promise at an equivalent level.
In addition, some colleges consider Senior Status applicants who are able to join the programme
one term early (in April/May). This has the effect of enabling such students to study for their final
public examinations at the same pace as undergraduates (beginning with the final term of the first
year of the regular BA programme), so the criteria for such applicants may not be so strict.
In the past, at least some colleges have been prepared to offer a place to a senior-status applicant
on the ordinary, nine-term (non-senior status) program. This option remains open in the new system
and may be discussed during the process of interviews (including release for Second Interview) and
at the Faculty Moderation Meeting. It is advised to ask the candidate if they would consider a 9-term
place offer (and record this in the comments).
86
APPENDIX O: EVALUATING CANDIDATES
Colleges will be expected to interview and evaluate all candidates shortlisted to them.
Colleges are now asked to evaluate candidates in three ways:
Interview ranking
Candidate ranking
Candidate score
Scores, ranking information and provisional offer decisions for First Interview candidates should be
entered into the Decision View on ADSS by
3pm Thursday 10th December (Week 9).
Scores, ranking information and provisional offer decisions for Second Interview candidates should
be entered into the Decision View on ADSS by
5pm Monday 13th December (Week 10).
Admitting Tutors are strongly encouraged to familiarise themselves with the data we have
on group differences in performance on LNAT, GCSEs and A-Levels, as well as the
explanations of the metrics used in Appendix K on Understanding the Data.
1. Interview Scoring
Colleges are free to score candidates on their interview performance on a scale from 1-10, using
the Faculty guidance on interviewing (see
Appendix M).
However, to avoid the problems of different scaling across colleges (eg College A might give a
very strong candidate a 9, while another might give 10 to a candidate who performs at the same
level),
colleges must enter a rank rather than a score for interview.
All interviewed candidates must be ranked from 1 – N(i) (where N(i) = number of candidates
interviewed) and ranks are entered on ADSS. This is called the “Interview Rank”.
The Interview Rank should only reflect interview performance.
Interview Ranks must be entered by
3pm Thursday 10th December, Week 9.
When all Interview Ranks have been entered, ADSS will generate an Interview Rank score. This
converts the rank to a score (expressed as a percentage). This approach allows for comparison
across differently sized cohorts and between Interview and Candidate Rank. A higher score
indicates a more highly rated candidate.
The following formula is used:
{1 – [Interview rank / (Number of interviews + 1)]}*100
Example
Candidate A’s interview performance is ranked 5th best out of 10 at College A. She has an
Interview Rank score of 55.
ADSS then the candidate’s Interview Rank scores to perform the Post-Interview Ranking.
The Post-Interview Ranking formula follows the statistical analysis of predictive value of metrics
and is as follows:
Post-Interview Ranking score = 0.85*Shortlisting score + 0.15*Average Interview Rank score
After the ranking process is complete, ADSS will make visible for each candidate:
Post-Interview Faculty Ranking
87
It is imperative that Interview Ranks are entered on time to allow for ADSS algorithm to be
run to enable colleges to make informed decisions about making offers to candidates in the
Faculty Moderation Meeting.
2. Candidate Scoring
Admissions tutors will now be asked to also provide an
overall evaluation of the candidates they
have interviewed, which should indicate:
How strong the candidate is within their cohort of interviewees
The overall strength of the candidate
Admissions tutors should draw on all aspects of the candidate’s performance and
application, particularly Access factors.
Candidate score (1-5)
Candidate Rank (top to bottom candidate in numerical order)
As this will be new data, UAO advises that we cannot add it to the Post-Interview Ranking, but in
the future once more data has been gathered, this may become possible.
For now, this information will:
Determine which candidates are allocate for Second Interview
Assist colleges considering making offers to candidates who have not received an offer
from their Shortlist or Second Interview College.
i) Candidate Score
The candidate score, should reflect the overall strength of the candidate, taking account of
all aspects of the candidate’s application, particularly Access factors.
Five scores may be entered:
5 = outstanding; deserves a place
4 = very good; should be offered a place if possible
3 = good; could be offered a place
2 = weak; no case for offering a place
1 = very week; should not be offered a place
Candidates of similar strength may be given the same score as this is not a rank.
The Candidate Score will be a valuable way to indicate the strength of a candidate who has
performed poorly at interview, but whom the college still considers to be a strong candidate for
selection. This will be especially useful for Access candidates and International candidates who
face particular barriers in interview.
ii) Candidate Rank
All candidates interviewed by a college must be ranked from 1 to N(interviewed), where
N(interviewed) = number of candidates interviewed in the college.
This ranking, like the Candidate Score, should reflect the
overall strength of the candidate, but is
assessed
relative to all other interviewed candidates.
ADSS wil automatically generate an ‘Candidate Rank’ score, expressed as a percentage. This
approach allows for comparison across differently sized cohorts and between Interview and
Candidate Rank. A higher score indicates a more highly rated candidate.
The following formula is used:
88
{1 – [Candidate rank / (Number of interviews + 1)]}*100
Example
Candidate A is ranked 4th out of 10 at College A. She has Candidate Rank score of 64.
iii) Relationship between Candidate Score and Candidate Rank
In many ways these overlap, but Candidate Rank enables very similar candidates within a college
to be distinguished. It is an opinion about
relative candidate strength.
Candidate Score is a means to identify
absolute strength of a candidate. Similarly strong
candidates should be given the same Candidate Score.
Taken together, these metrics help to avoid the problem of different colleges using different scales
to represent strength, and will provide a steer for other colleges considering candidates for offers.
As we gather data, we will consider whether one or both are valuable assessment tools. UAO will
undertake analysis in the future and support the Law Faculty in reflecting on the usefulness of
these measures.
Example
College A sees 10 candidates.
They consider the candidates as follows:
Candidates A, C and F performed very well at interview and all other aspects of their applications
are very strong.
Candidates B and D performed well at interview but B’s application overall is stronger (the
college noted the much higher Post-Interview Ranking).
Candidate E performed very poorly at interview, but her overall application was strong,
particularly when account was taken of contextual factors (see is a Band A candidate).
Candidates G, I and J all performed fairly poorly at interview and their overall applications were
also not at the highest level (they ranked in the bottom third of the Post-Interview Ranking). All
are Bands C and D.
Candidate H performed fairly well at interview, but her application was not sufficiently strong and
taken together, she was not considered strong enough and the college would not wish to make
her an offer.
On the basis of this, the College ranks the candidates as follows. ADSS generates Candidate
Rank scores:
Candidate Interview
Interview
Candidate
Candidate
Candidate Rank Score
Rank
Rank Score
Score
Rank
A
1
91
5
1
91
C
3
73
5
2
82
F
2
82
5
3
73
B
5
55
4
4
64
D
4
64
3
5
55
E
10
9
4
6
45
G
6
27
2
7
36
H
8
45
1
8
27
I
9
18
1
9
18
J
7
27
1
10
9
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APPENDIX P: SECOND INTERVIEWS AND OFFER PROCESS
The system for offer making remains the same with a few key differences to the timeline and the
process. In particular, rules of priority of offer will apply at the Faculty Moderation Meeting to
manage the situation where multiple colleges may wish to make an offer to a candidate.
Note: we will continue to use the usual offer codes (see
Appendix Q on Final Decisions)
1. Offer Priority Rules
To manage the impact of the Faculty Moderation Meeting (particularly on the import/export rule),
these rules will apply to make clear which college has the right to make an offer to a given
candidate.
Note: it is important to understand the impact of these rules on:
Entering decisions
Release of candidates for Second Interview
The college with priority in relation to a given candidate is known as the “Offer priority college”.
Colleges have priority to make an offer to a candidate in the following order:
i) Shortlist College
ii) Second Interview College
iii) College of Application
iv) Any other college
Note: if a Shortlist College releases a candidate for Second Interview, the Second Interview
college becomes the Offer Priority College. If the Second Interview College does not enter a
provisional offer to that candidate, priority reverts to the Shortlist College.
2. Interviewing
i) First Interviews
First Interviews must be completed by
noon Thursday Week 9 (but will ideally be completed by
the end Wednesday)
Colleges are strongly advised to start interviewing on Monday and to avoid
interviewing on Thursday if possible to complete to leave time for decisions to be
considered (given the impact of the COVID-19 changes to interviewing this year, the
timeframe is particularly tight for inviting candidates to second interview).
Colleges must enter their decisions in Decision View by
3pm Thursday Week 9 even if they wish
to see Second Interview candidates (decisions are provisional until the Faculty Moderation
Meeting)
ii) Releasing Candidates for Second Interview
As Colleges may now make offers to candidates without an offer at the Faculty Moderation
Meeting, the previous Import/Export rule (colleges may only import or export candidates for second
interview, not both) continues to operate:
A college that
exports candidates for interview, may not request to
import candidates for
interview
A college that
imports candidates for interview, may not
export candidates for interview
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There are
two important changes:
Colleges no longer need to decide which candidates they will nominate for export.
Instead, a willingness that a candidate can be exports will be indicated by entering a
reject code in Decision View (‘A’ or ‘B’ reject).
o Any (and only) candidates indicated by a reject code in a college that has not
requested further candidates for interview (‘exporting colleges’) wil be considered
available for allocation for second interview.
o No candidates at colleges requesting further candidates (‘importing colleges’) will be
reallocated to Second Interview, regardless of offer code
This is how the import/export rule is preserved while removing the need (and
limitations associated with) to nominate for second interview.
o
Colleges wishing to retain priority to make an offer to a candidate should
enter an Offer code (‘P1’, ‘O’, ‘N’, ‘N(O)’)
These can be amended at the Faculty Moderation Meeting
o The Faculty Admission Co-Ordinator will determine which candidates are allocated
for Second Interview (based on evaluations entered by colleges, taking particular
account of the value in enabling Access candidates to be considered by more than
one college)
Colleges will be bound by the priority rules over offer making (above)
o A college who releases a candidate loses priority to make them an offer.
o Priority passes to the Second Interview college
Second Interview College should enter an Offer code in Decision View if
they wish to make the candidate an offer
o Priority returns to the Shortlist College if the Second Interview College does not
wish to make the candidate an offer.
This must be indicated by entering ‘A’ or ‘B’ Reject in the Decision View
Colleges should now approach this aspect of the system in terms of
releasing candidates for
Second Interview and should note that if the Second Interview College does not make the
candidate an offer, the Shortlist College may reverse their rejection and make an Offer at the
Faculty Moderation Meeting.
iii) Requesting Candidates for Second Interview
Colleges wishing to conduct Second Interviews must email the Admissions Officer with the number
they would like to see by
3pm Thursday Week 9.
The Faculty Admissions Co-Ordinator will determine which candidates are allocated for Second
Interview (based on evaluations entered by colleges, taking particular account of the value in
enabling Access candidates to be considered by more than one college)
Second Interview Colleges must enter their
further decisions in Decision View by
5pm Monday
Week 10. They may also amend their original provisional decisions if necessary.
3. Provisional Offers
Colleges should enter offer decisions as follows:
All colleges
Enter provisional offer decisions on
all interviewed
candidates by
3pm Thursday Week 9.
Colleges conducting second interviews
Enter offer decisions
on
second interview
candidates and
amend original decisions by
5pm
Monday Week 10.
Note: any candidate who is not made an offer in Decision View by 3pm Thursday Week 9
will be considered available for allocation for Second Interview by the Admissions Co-
Ordinator.
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The Admissions Co-Ordinator will contact any college from whom a candidate is exported before
doing so.
Note: Offer decisions can and will be altered at the Faculty Moderation Meeting.
4. Final Offers and the Faculty Moderation Meeting
The Faculty Moderation Meeting will be held at
10am Wednesday Week 10.
Final offer decisions are made by Colleges at the Faculty Moderation Meeting (at least one
representative from each college to attend). These will be:
Offer decisions
Open offer decisions
LSE course nominations
Opportunity Oxford nominations
The Faculty Meeting will operate as a general forum in which all colleges can discuss and move
candidates as needed. Discussion of candidates will be led by the Admissions Co-Ordinator. They
will come to the meeting ready to guide discussion on:
candidates whom colleges may wish to make an offer
Access benchmarking targets and indications of performance based on provisional
decisions
Admitting tutors are asked to attend having looked on ADSS to see if there are other
candidates to whom they would wish to make an offer.
The priority rules for offers will operate.
Final offer decisions and Course 2 nominations should be entered once the Faculty Moderation
Meeting concludes and must be on ADSS
by 5pm Wednesday Week 10 (to give the Course 2
Committee time to meet and make its assessments).
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APPENDIX Q: FINAL DECISIONS
We will continue to use the usual codes for entering decisions on ADSS.
Final decisions should be entered once the Faculty Moderation Meeting concludes and must be
on ADSS
by 5pm Wednesday Week 10.
1. Law / Law with Law Studies in Europe candidates
Enter decisions on the
Law-Decision View page. Place decisions can be:
‘N’ (Nominate for Course 2)
‘N(O)’ (Nominate for Open Offer Course 2)
‘P1’ (Place on Course 1)
‘P2’ (Place on Course 2)
‘O’ (Open Offer)
O(2) (Open Offer Course 2)
‘A’ (borderline reject)
‘B’ (Clear reject)
‘O’ designates a decision to make an open offer to a candidate. For instructions on the Open Offer
Scheme and its operations please see below.
For every candidate nominated for Course 2 the college must ensure that it has entered:
the result of any language test administered by the college,
information about the country (and any alternative country) requested by the candidate, and
the ‘LSE Nominate Deferred’ box should be set to ‘Yes’, if the candidate seeks deferred
entry for 2022/23.
Note: Colleges are responsible for amending Place codes on ADSS once the Course 2 Committee
has communicated its decisions.
2. Senior Status candidates
Enter decisions for
Senior Status Decision View page. Place decisions can be:
‘P1-MT20’ (Place on Senior Status starting in Michaelmas 2021)
‘P1-TT20’ (Place on Senior Status starting in Trinity 2021)
‘P1-3year’ (Place on the regular 3 year BA)
‘A’ (borderline reject)
‘B’ (Clear reject)
3. Opportunity Oxford
Candidates that meet the criteria for a place on Opportunity Oxford will be flagged on the Law
Candidate Summary page of ADSS.
Colleges are responsible for nominating candidates for Opportunity Oxford places.
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4. Open Offer Scheme
The Open Offer Scheme has not changed in the reforms.
1. Course 1
The open offer scheme is available to colleges who would like to share the risk of their candidates
not meeting the conditions of their standard offer. If your college decides not to enter the open offer
scheme it will bear the risk of falling short of its student quota for law.
While colleges are free to stipulate grades in particular A-levels if thought necessary, participation
in the open offer scheme precludes colleges from making offers which are lower than the minimum
predicted grades required for an invitation for interview (see
Appendix I above), i.e. no lower than
AAA for A-level (General Studies and Critical Thinking to be ignored), 38 + for the IB etc.
A sample Open Offer letter to Course 1 candidates is available under
Appendix T. This letter
should not be used for Course 2 candidates.
2. Course 2
Open offers can be made to Course 2 candidates but only to those candidates who have been
selected by the Faculty’s Course 2 Selection Committee. The Faculty would expect it to be made
infrequently as open offers tend to be made to more marginal candidates and Course 2 is
considered to be more competitive. The offers must also include the conditions required by the
Faculty for admission to Course 2.
The scheme works as follows:
December 2020 – during the admissions round
1. Each college wishing to participate in the scheme makes a number of ‘open’ offers, by
using open offer decisions (O, or O(2)). An ‘open’ offer guarantees a candidate a place
at
one of the colleges in the open offer scheme if they meet the conditions. It is designed to
provide a cover ratio so as to deal with candidates not meeting their conditions.
2. The Admissions Coordinator will capture this information for administration of the system
once A-level results are announced in August 2021. By making at least one open offer your
college is participating in the open offer scheme.
After A-levels are announced (August 2021)
3. Following the release of A-level results, colleges within the open offer scheme should
inform the Admissions Coordinator whether they are going to confirm their open offer
candidates, and also if they are seeking to import or export open offer candidates through
the scheme by
12pm Tuesday 13 August 2021.5
4.
If a college has not filled its places from firm offers, it will be
obliged to take any candidates
to whom it has made an open offer and who have met such an offer.
5.
If a college has not filled all the places it has made offers for with its own candidates (open
offer candidates or otherwise), it will be
obliged to take open offers candidate/s exported
from another college who has filled its places. This will be randomly allocated (by the
Admissions Coordinator).
6.
If a college has filled its places, but also has open offer candidates who have met their
conditions, those candidates
must be offered to other colleges in the open offer scheme
5 If a college is awaiting the results of any A-level remarks, it must nonetheless make a decision about its
open offer candidates at this stage. If there are more open offer candidates than places available at colleges
in the scheme, a college awaiting remarks is obliged to take its open offer candidate regardless. If there are
more places available than open offer candidates, a college awaiting remarks may choose either to release
its open offer candidate/s or to keep them, but this decision will be final.
94
who have not filled their places. Where a college has more open offer candidates than
available places, the college may decide which of the open offer candidates to make
available for export. These open offer candidates will then be randomly allocated (by the
Admissions Coordinator) across those colleges in the scheme who have not filled their
places from firm offers or their own open offers.
Candidates that have been allocated to
a college through the open offer scheme, must be taken by that college ahead of any
of their own ‘near misses’ to whom clemency might be available.
7.
If all other colleges in the open offer scheme have filled their places, any successful open
offer candidates
must be given a place at the college which made the offer. The college
making the original open offer will be obliged to take the open offer candidate in addition to
those candidates who hold ‘firm’ offers.
Note: open offer candidates will not be made available to colleges who did not participate in
the scheme (by making open offers) during the relevant admissions round.
5. Communicating Offer Decisions
Colleges are asked
not to contact candidate until the Admissions Co-Ordinator confirms that
all decisions have been finalised (
Friday Week 10)
Responsibility for communicating decisions will be as follows:
Candidate Status
Responsible for Communicating Decisions
Deselected
Shortlist College (not Second Interview College)
Offer
Offer College
Note: To avoid conflicting information being sent, Colleges are requested
not to send letters
expressing information about what another College may do.
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APPENDIX R: LAW WITH LAW STUDIES IN EUROPE
1. Introduction
The arrangements for Course 2 are co-ordinated by the Institute of European and Comparative Law:
questions about the course, or admissions arrangements, should be directed to
, the Admissions Co-ordinator for Course 2, or
, the Administrator of the Institute.
It is vital that all those involved in law admissions within the colleges remember that:
(i)
OFFERS CAN BE MADE FOR COURSE 2 ONLY TO THOSE APPLICANTS WHO HAVE
BEEN SELECTED BY THE FACULTY’S COURSE 2 SELECTION COMMITTEE IN
ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROCEDURES SET OUT IN THIS SECTION;
(ii)
OFFERS MUST INCLUDE THE CONDITIONS REQUIRED BY THE FACULTY FOR
ADMISSION TO COURSE 2 AND CONTINUATION ON THE COURSE AFTER LAW
MODERATIONS.
2. Available courses and places
The places available on Course 2 for admission in October 2021 are as follows:
France
14
Germany
10
Italy
2
Spain
3
The Netherlands
4
TOTAL
33
In recent years the competition for places for Italy has been significantly less strong than for the
other options: in some years no candidates have been nominated at all.
The Faculty wishes
positively to encourage Law Tutors to nominate suitable candidates for Italy. Nominations for
Germany have also been low:
the Faculty wishes also to encourage more nominations for
Germany. The number of places for each option is, however, flexible: in particular, in a year in
which the field for one option is notably stronger than the field for another option, the selection
committee may adjust the numbers marginally within the overall maximum of 33.
3. The exchange scheme
Colleges are reminded that Course 2 operates on an exchange basis with partner universities in
France, Germany, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands. A college admitting a student to Course 2 is
undertaking to receive a student from one of those universities during their own student’s third year
(that is, normally as a direct exchange for their own student who is spending the year abroad).
Under our agreements with our partner universities, the numbers of students to be exchanged are
finalised a year ahead of the students’ year abroad, and therefore Oxford normally becomes
irrevocably committed to receiving a European student in exchange for each Oxford student who is
on Course 2 at the end of Trinity Term of the first year. If for any reason a student admitted to
Course 2 withdraws from the course before the year abroad, the Faculty will attempt to fill the
vacant Course 2 place, and if a replacement can be found the duty to receive the incoming
exchange student transfers to the college of the replacement student. If no replacement can be
found at a time when the Faculty is irrevocably committed to receive an incoming exchange
student, the college would however still be expected to receive the incoming student.
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4. Cost implications
Colleges may be asked by candidates about the financial implications for them of accepting a
place on Course 2. The details of costs and sources of funds for Course 2 students during the year
abroad cannot be predicted with certainty at the time of their admission, and the uncertainty is
increased in light of the proposed withdrawal of the UK from the European Union, which may have
been completed by the time that students admitted to Course 2 in October 2021 go abroad (in
2023/2024). We cannot give definitive advice about the funding arrangements for the year abroad
(including any impact on the Erasmus+ programme that the withdrawal might have for UK
universities such as Oxford), but the Faculty encourages applicants to continue to apply for Course
2, and colleges to continue to accept students for Course 2, as in previous years. Further
information will be provided as soon as it is available.
Details on the current funding arrangements are contained in the general Course 2 information
circular which is sent out at the beginning of each Michaelmas Term to Senior Law Tutors at
colleges who have students on Course 2 (further copies of the current circular can be obtained
from
, Administrator of the Institute of European and Comparative Law). In broad terms,
candidates need to know that the year abroad has some necessary cost implications. Since any
Student Loan to which a student may be entitled is payable during that year, and some additional
funding is likely to be available by way of grant to each student (both from sponsorship which the
Faculty has obtained for the course, and (at present) from funds provided annually through the
Erasmus programme) the additional living costs for most students will not be prohibitive, and may
be very modest.
The details of the fees as they will apply for students admitted in October 2021 (i.e., for the year
abroad 2023/2024) have not yet been finalised, but at present we can give the following general
advice, based on current funding arrangements:
(i) Under the terms of our exchange agreements, students on Course 2 will not be charged tuition
fees by their host European university.
(ii) Course 2 students do, however, have a continuing fee liability to Oxford during the year abroad.
Students who pay fees at the Home/EU/Islands rate pay a very significantly reduced tuition fee
during the year abroad; students who pay fees at the Overseas rate pay fees at one half of the fee
that they would normally otherwise be charged when in residence. To illustrate this: when Course
2 students currently go abroad in 2020/21, they will pay either £1,385 (Home/EU/Islands) or
£8,415 (Overseas). Details (which will be updated when future years’ fees are set) can be seen at
www.ox.ac.uk/students/fees-funding/fees/abroad.
5. Exchange arrangements for students currently in their second year
The details in this Manual are intended to cover the arrangements for Oxford undergraduate
admissions to Course 2 during the 2020 admissions exercise - i.e. admission to the first year in
October 2021 or (for deferred places) 2022. It does not deal with the admission of the exchange
students from our partner universities for October 2021. Those Colleges which currently have
Course 2 students in the second year, due to go abroad under the scheme next year, are however
reminded that they will during the course of this year be allocated a student from one of our partner
universities who will be here in 2021/20. Colleges are required under the terms of the exchange
scheme to accept our partner universities’ nominees, just as the European universities are bound
to accept our students. All incoming exchange students take the Diploma in Legal Studies. It is
understood that all incoming students will be accommodated in College. Please cater for this when
planning numbers, and especially accommodation availability next year.
6. Eligibility for Admission to Course 2
a) Home/EU/Overseas students
Places on Course 2 may be awarded to candidates of any category: Home, EU or Overseas
students, although different fees will apply.
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b) Linguistic ability
The selection criteria for Course 2 are identical to those for Course 1 with only one addition: for
Course 2 competence in the European language applicable to the year of study abroad is also a
criterion of admission. (The courses in the Netherlands are given in English, so no formal language
assessment or condition is required. The Faculty provides Dutch conversational language tuition
for students during the year before they go to The Netherlands.) The Course 2 Selection
Committee must, however, be satisfied of the language competence of candidates for France,
Germany, Italy or Spain. This normally requires (i) evidence of ability in the relevant language in
school study; and (ii) a short oral language test conducted in Oxford during the admissions
exercise. However, if a candidate is not taking the relevant language at school, we may be able to
take into consideration other evidence: further advice may be sought in individual cases from
Jeremias Adams-Prassl.
(i) Language qualifications at school
Candidates for France will normally be expected to have or to be capable of achieving Grade A at
A-level, or equivalent qualification, in French.
Candidates for Germany will normally be expected to have or be capable of achieving Grade A at
A-level, or equivalent, in German.
Candidates for Italy will normally be expected to have or be capable of achieving Grade A at A-
level, or an equivalent qualification, in Italian.
However, the Faculty recognises that there are
candidates who may well be suited to taking the Italian Law course but who have not had the
opportunity to take Italian at A-level, and so it is prepared to consider applications from candidates
whose level of Italian is below A-level, but where there is sufficient evidence (typically, from their
work on other languages at A-level) that they can be expected, with additional intensive language
training during the first two years in Oxford, to be able to bring themselves up to the standard
required to study successfully in Italy during the year abroad.
Candidates for Spain will normally be expected to have or be capable of achieving Grade A at A-
level, or equivalent, in Spanish.
It follows that the Selection Committee will require that any conditional acceptance for France,
Germany, Italy or Spain be made conditional on attaining the necessary grade in A-level or
equivalent. In the IB exams the language condition normally required is grade 6 in the higher level
paper.
(ii) The language test
It is expected that all candidates will take a language test as part of their interview in Oxford, see 8)
below.
(iii) Native speakers
Native speakers of the relevant language satisfy the linguistic ability criterion. No academic
language condition need therefore be imposed on a native speaker in order to satisfy the Course 2
admissions requirements, nor need a native speaker be tested by the language test, as long as his
or her application contains sufficient unequivocal evidence of that fact (e.g. s/he is currently being
educated in the language concerned). However, if any college wishes to nominate an applicant
who claims to be a native speaker, but has any doubt about whether it is sufficiently clearly
evidenced, it is advisable to ensure that the usual language test is undertaken.
7. Applications
Candidates for Course 2 will have indicated in their UCAS entry which destination they wish to
apply for as there are separate UCAS course codes for each Course 2 destination country:
The choice of destination will already be entered onto ADSS under in the column ‘Country’ in the
Candidates Summary page, and therefore it will be clear which country each Course 2 applicant
should be considered for in the first instance.
98
When invited to interview candidates should be asked if they wish to be considered for alternative
countries, and necessary language tests booked. This must be discussed at interview and
communicated to the Course 2 Selection Committee.
1. Applications for deferred places
Candidates may seek deferred entry, but given the restriction on numbers it is unlikely that the
Selection Committee will allow more than one place for any country to be filled on a deferred basis,
and the Committee is less likely to commit deferred places on the more competitive options where
numbers admitted are small (notably, Spain and The Netherlands).
2. Applicants who are graduates of other universities
Candidates for the ‘Second BA’ (i.e., who are already graduates of other universities) are eligible
for admission to Course 2. However,
the Faculty has decided that it is normally not
appropriate for Second BA students to take Course 2 with Senior Status. Second BAs who
are admitted for Course 2 will therefore normally take the full four-year course. Any
nominations for Course 2 places for Second BA applicants must be made at the same time as all
other nominations.
8. The Language Test
Subject to what is said above about native speakers, all applicants for France, Germany, Italy and
Spain whom colleges wish to nominate for consideration by the Selection Committee must
undergo a language test prior to consideration by the Committee.
It is colleges’ responsibility to ensure that their candidates undergo a language test, and to
give the candidates instructions as to when and where to present themselves for testing. The Institute of European and Comparative Law makes arrangements for testing in French,
German, Italian and Spanish to be conducted at the Language Centre. However, in order to lessen
the load on the Language Centre, the Faculty requests that, wherever possible, colleges carry out
the tests, particularly in French or German in which the numbers to be tested are large. The results
of language tests conducted by the Language Centre will be communicated directly to the
Selection Committee, and entered onto ADSS centrally. Where the language test for a candidate
nominated to the Selection Committee has been conducted by the college, the tutor should enter
the language test result onto ADSS.
1. Language tests conducted by colleges
Colleges which make their own arrangements for language testing should note the following
criteria which are to be applied in the test:
i) It is intended that the language test be an oral test, and it is expected that it will be a short
one. The Selection Committee will rely on the college to ensure that the test is administered
by a person competent to administer it.
ii) The tester should form an opinion as to the candidate’s linguistic capability, addressing
particularly the question whether, in the tester's opinion, the candidate is likely, with or
without further study and experience, to be able to cope with a year in a university in the
country of proposed study (France, Germany, Italy or Spain). It is relevant for the tester to
know that the students go abroad in their third year so there is time for developing linguistic
skills and that a preparatory course, involving language tuition and an introductory legal
method course conducted in the relevant language, will be compulsory for these students
during their two years in Oxford prior to going abroad.
iii) The test should be scored on the following scale:
Grade
Fluency
99
A
fluency as a native speaker
A-
ability close to fluency is already achieved or is likely to be achieved
over the next two years
B
evidence of linguistic talent sufficient to predict that the applicant will
be able to cope adequately with a year abroad, given preparation
C
the student might, with hard work, be able to cope
D
the student is unlikely, even with hard work, to be able to cope.
The result should be entered on ADSS accordingly (in the column ‘Language Test Score’ on the
Test Scores page). If a nominating college wishes to make some further comment (in addition to
the bare test result) about the result of a particular candidate’s language ability, this can be done in
the Comments box in the Candidate Summary page for the candidate concerned.
Colleges should note that the Committee is generally likely to award places on Course 2 to
candidates who have language test scores of A, A- and B. Candidates with a language test score
of C will still be considered, and it is for such candidates that further information in support of a
nomination will be most useful. The Committee is not normally able to consider candidates with a
score of D in the language test.
2. Language tests conducted by the Language Centre
Tests will be available in French, German, Italian and Spanish and will be conducted online by the
University Language Centre . These language tests will be held on either
Wednesday 9
December, Thursday 10 December or Friday 11 December (depending on the availability of
language testers and the number of candidates booked in for the tests). Colleges which are not
making their own arrangements for language testing, but wish to have their candidates tested at
the Language Centre,
must book in advance by contacting
(
. They will be given specific times for their candidates’ tests.
It is hoped
that colleges will make their bookings as part of the planning of their interview timetables.
There is no guarantee that the Language Centre will be able to offer last-minute bookings
for language tests.
Colleges should note that for tests conducted by the Language Centre a modest charge will be
made by the Language Centre direct to the college.
9. Procedure for Course 2 Nominations
Nominations for Course 2 must be made through ADSS. A college wishing to nominate a
candidate to the Selection Committee for consideration for a place on Course 2 must enter either
‘
N’ (i.e., Nominate, where the college proposes to offer the candidate a place for Course 2 if the
Selection Committee accepts him/her) or ‘
N(O)’ (i.e., Nominate for an Open Offer for Course 2) in
the Decisions column for that candidate on the Decision View page of ADSS. Once this data has
been saved, it will appear also on the Candidate Summary page.
Please ensure ALL required information on each nominated candidate is entered onto
ADSS (see no. 10 below).
There is no limit on the number of nominations that can be made by any college, and each
nomination will be assessed on its own merits in competition with the nominations made by other
colleges for the same country within Course 2.
However, if any college has an internal
maximum quota of places for successful candidates for Course 2, the College should
provide this information to Jeremias Adams-Prassl by email no later than the deadline for
Course 2 nominations. The Course 2 Selection Committee will then take this into account in
taking its decisions on that college’s candidates so as to ensure that the college’s overall limit for
Course 2 places is observed.
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10. Information required on nominated candidates
Colleges should ensure that, for every candidate it nominates, it has included within ADSS (no
later than the deadline for Course 2 nominations) the following information:
(i)
The results of any relevant language test administered by the college. This is done by
entering the test score result (A, A-, B, C or D) in the Language Test Grade box for the relevant
candidate on the Test Scores page of ADSS. Once this data has been saved, it will appear also on
the Candidate Summary page. (The result of tests administered by the Language Centre will be
entered centrally onto ADSS.)
(ii)
Information about the country (and any alternative country) requested by the candidate. The country for which each candidate’s UCAS application was made wil already be entered into
ADSS (and can be seen on the Candidate Summary page). This cannot be changed. If, however,
a candidate wishes to be considered for a different country as his or her first option (either because
of an error in the UCAS application, or because the candidate has changed his or her mind) this
can be done but should be recorded on ADSS in the Comments box on the Candidate Summary
page. If a candidate wishes to be considered for a
second option within Course 2, this should be
entered on the ‘Law-Decision page’ page on ADSS, in the column headed ‘LSE Alt. Country’ which
contains pull-down options for the various Course 2 countries. Once this data has been saved, it
will appear also on the Candidate Summary page.
Please note that ‘LSE Alt. Country’ is
reserved for the second choice country option for the candidate and is not to be used to
correct any incorrect first choice entry on ADSS. It is possible (although not common) for a
candidate to wish to be considered for more than two options in Course 2 (e.g. France, Germany,
the Netherlands in that order of preference). ADSS allows only two choices of country to be
entered directly;
if a candidate wishes to be considered for further options, this should be
noted in the Comments box for the candidate concerned.
(iii)
The candidate’s interview ranking
(iv)
If the candidate seeks deferred entry for Course 2 (i.e. entry in 2021 rather than 2020), this
should be indicated by choosing ‘Yes’ on the ‘Defer LSE Place Nominate’ box for the relevant
candidate on the Decision View page of ADSS. Once this data has been saved, it will appear also
on the Candidate Summary page. Regardless of what might have been indicated by way of year of
entry on the candidate’s UCAS form, all Course 2 nominations will be treated as being for 2020
entry except for those which have a ‘Yes’ on LSE Nominate Deferred column.
(v)
The candidate’s ranking within the college’s field of candidates. This will already have
been entered on ADSS in Decision View.
(vi) Any further information about the candidate’s application that the college wishes to bring to
the attention of the Selection Committee may be entered in the Comments box in the Candidate
Summary page for the candidate concerned.
11. Course 2 Decisions
The Faculty’s Course 2 Selection Committee meets on
the morning of Thursday of week 10,
17th December, and will communicate its decisions in two forms:
i) Once the Committee has taken its decisions, it will enter them onto ADSS. This constitutes
a first provisional indication to tutors (the official notification will be by letter: para.(ii) below),
and
will be done during the late morning or early afternoon of Thursday of Week 10,
17th December, so that colleges can then enter their final decisions on all candidates by
the deadline of
5pm Friday 18th December Week 10. The results will appear on the
Candidate Summary page, in the column headed (‘Dec. LSE Panel’), and for each
nominated candidate the range of possible results is as follows:
Code
Decision
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AFra
Accept for France
Ager
Accept for Germany
AItal
Accept for Italy
ASpa
Accept for Spain
ANth
Accept for the Netherlands
RFra
Reserve list for France
RGer
Reserve list for Germany
RItal
Reserve list for Italy
RSpa
Reserve list for Spain
RNth
Reserve list for the Netherlands
Rej
Reject for Course 2
ii) A formal communication of the decisions will be sent by
Administrator of the
Institute of European and Comparative Law, to (a) Senior Law Tutors and (b) Tutors for
Admissions, giving details of those candidates who have been accepted (or placed on the
reserve list), and of any language conditions that the Committee expects the college to
impose on making its offer
via email (rather than by post as in previous years). These
emails will be sent out from the Institute in the messenger service
by the morning of
Friday 18th December (Week 10) (or earlier if possible)
Tutors for Admissions are
particularly requested to act only on this formal email communication in preparing
their acceptance letters to candidates.
‘Reserve list’
The Selection Committee may produce a ‘reserve list’ of candidates who, although they are not
offered places for Course 2, are already identified as suitable to fill a vacant place which comes
free before or at the start of the course in Michaelmas Term 2021. Candidates placed on the
reserve list will be so identified on ADSS and in the decision letters sent to colleges.
12. Making Offers to Candidates Accepted by the Selection Committee
1. Form of offers to accepted candidates
Tutors for Admissions are asked to ensure that offer letters sent to accepted candidates
contain the following conditions:
i)
In the case of candidates being made conditional offers for France, Germany, Italy or
Spain, the relevant language condition (i.e., normally a condition of obtaining Grade A in A-
level (or equivalent) in French, German, Italian or Spanish, as the case may be). In the
case of candidates being made conditional offers who are taking examinations other than
A-levels, the formal letter from Jenny Dix which communicates to colleges the candidate’s
acceptance will also indicate the language condition the Faculty expects to be imposed.
ii)
For all candidates, a condition relating to their performance in Law Moderations. With the
approval of the Faculty, it has been agreed that candidates accepted on Course 2 should
be told that their continuation on the course will normally depend on achieving an average
mark of 60 or better in the candidate’s first sitting of the three papers in Law Moderations.
The Admissions Office has told us that this is acceptable, but stresses that this
must be
communicated to applicants in the letter offering a place. We therefore ask Tutors for
Admissions to include the following words in any offer:
‘Continuation in Course 2 wil normally be conditional on achievement of an average mark
of at least 60 in the first sitting of the three papers in Law Moderations. Students who do not
achieve this grade will normally be transferred to Course 1 (the three-year Law course).’
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2. Form of letter to candidates who are have been placed on the ‘reserve list’
If a college makes an offer of a place on Course 1 to a candidate who has been placed by the
Faculty on the reserve list, it is free to communicate in the letter offering the Course 1 place the
fact that the candidate has been placed on the Faculty’s reserve list (and the ranking on the
reserve list) but, if it does so, it must at the same time make clear that the purpose of the reserve
list is only to fill any vacant places which might come free before or at the start of the course in
Michaelmas Term 2021; and that (in the case of France, Germany, Italy or Spain) no candidate
may be admitted from the reserve list to a confirmed place on Course 2 who has not by the start of
the course in October 2021 satisfied the Faculty’s relevant language requirement.
3. Copies of offer letters; and later information about candidates’ acceptances
It would be appreciated if Tutors for Admissions could send to
(Administrator,
Institute of European and Comparative Law) a copy of each offer letter sent, so that we can
ensure that the Faculty's admission records are accurate and complete. It would also be
particularly helpful if
could be told of any relevant later information - in particular, if a
candidate declines the college’s offer or for any other reason fails to take up his or her place. In
such cases the Faculty would expect to attempt to fill the vacant Course 2 place from amongst
those on its ‘reserve list’ with effect from the beginning of the course in October 2021, rather than
waiting to fill the place at a later stage.
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APPENDIX S: EXAMPLE OF INTERVIEW ASSESSMENT FORM
Candidate Name:
Assessor Name:
Interview
Additional Comments
Evaluation Score 1 - 106
Application:
Concentration and
enthusiasm
Reasoning:
Ability to make a
sustained and
cogent argument
Ability to
distinguish relevant
from irrelevant
Ability to identify
and explain
weaknesses in
argument
Creativity, flexibility
of thought, lateral
thinking
Communication:
Ability to give clear
and carefully
articulated responses
Overall evaluation
of interview7
6 Evaluation Scores: 1-2 Very poor; 3-4 Poor; 5 – 6 Average; 7-8 Good; 9-10 Very Good.
7 Please give general evaluation of interview with reference to the Faculty of Law Criteria for Admission.
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APPENDIX T: SAMPLE LETTER TO COURSE 1 OPEN OFFER CANDIDATE
ONLY
Dear Candidate,
I am pleased to be able to tell you that ‘X college’ is able to make you an Open Offer for entry in
October 2020, subject to your obtaining the following grades in your forthcoming examinations: AAA
etc.
This means that you will definitely be awarded a place to read (Law) at a college within the open
offer scheme including, possibly, (X college) if you satisfy the conditions set. It is not yet possible to
say exactly which college your place will be at. Exactly which will depend on which college has a
vacancy after publication of A-level results.
We very much hope that you will decide to accept this conditional offer of a place at Oxford. If you
or your school would like to talk about it before coming to a decision, please do not hesitate to contact
me.
May I please ask you to let me know as soon as possible, preferably by the end of January (at the
latest), if you do intend to accept this offer. This will enable me to offer any places which are declined
to other applicants, and will enable us to inform UCAS of our decision on all applicants early in
February.
Confirmation of our offer will be sent to you by UCAS and you should indicate your decision by
returning the reply slip to UCAS in the normal way. Please notify me immediately if there is any
discrepancy between our decision and the UCAS notification.
Yours sincerely,
X College admissions tutor
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APPENDIX U: SAMPLE FEEDBACK LETTER
This year we received N. applications for N. places. Almost all of our applicants had unblemished
school records and very strong and supportive references.
As part of the university-wide Common Framework for Admissions, introduced a few years ago,
the Faculty shortlists candidates (in consultation with colleges), some of whom to their college of
application, and some are reallocated to other colleges for interview. The Faculty and colleges
collectively shortlist between 2.5 and 3 applicants per place available on the Law courts.
As a result of this process, each college will interview between 2.5 and 3 applicants per available
place. The point of this system is to minimise the extent to which applicants may be prejudiced by
their choice of college and to make sure, as far as possible, that all those applicants who are
strong enough to merit an interview are in fact interviewed.
The assessment of candidates at the pre-interview stage is based on the following: (1) academic
performance to date; (2) predicted grades; (3) reference; (4) the LNAT multiple choice test, and (5)
the LNAT essay, which is read by someone at the college of first choice and not marked centrally.
These are all assessed against our criteria for selection, details of which are published on the web
at http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate/criteria.php). It is important to note that weakness in one
of these areas can be compensated by exceptional strength elsewhere, as well as by special
circumstances (medical conditions, recent bereavements etc.). We also take contextual data into
account in making our assessment."
[Follow by individual paragraph, outlining why the candidate in question was (not) offered and
interview/place].
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APPENDIX V: CANDIDATE STATUSES (ADSS)
This table details the terminology used by the Admissions Officer within the ADSS system (not
visible to Admissions tutors).
It is not part of the terminology for Admissions generally, only for defining aspects of ADSS for
functionality purposes.
Candidate Status
Overall Status
Use
Manually or
Automatically
Assigned (by
Admissions
Officer)?
Category 1 (Reserved)
Reserved
Allocated to the top-ranked Category 1
Manually
candidates in each College per place
Category 1 (Reserved
Reserved
Allocated to Category 1 candidates whose
Manually
WP)
College of application wishes to retain their
WP Category 1 candidates (regardless of
ranking)
Category 1 (Shortlisted)
Shortlisted
Allocated to all other Category 1 candidates
Automatically (may
be manually
overridden)
Shortlisted
Shortlisted
All candidates who are shortlisted and not
Manually
reserved
Shortlisted (WP)
Reserved
Allocated to shortlisted candidates whose
Manually amend to
College of application has indicated that they
‘Reserved’ to reflect
wish to retain their WP candidates (Bands A
college shortlisting
and B)
preferences
Rescue (Reserved)
Reserved
Allocated to Rescue candidates who will
Manually
receive an over-ratio interview and their
College of application has elected to
interview Rescue candidates and to retain
their Rescue candidates
Rescue (Shortlisted)
Shortlisted
Allocated to Rescue candidates who will
Manually
receive an over-ratio interview whose College
of application has not elected to interview
Rescue candidates / not elected to retain
their Rescue candidates.
Also applied manually to candidates rescued
by a college directly.
Rescue (Deselected)
Shortlisted
Allocated to all candidates on Faculty Rescue Manually amend to
List.
‘Rescue
(Shortlisted)’ for
candidates who will
receive an over-
ratio interview
Deselected
Deselected
All candidates to be deselected; this will be
Manually
allocated once all candidates have been
shortlisted and reserved
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APPENDIX W: USEFUL CONTACTS
1. ADSS Technical Support
Email xxxx@xxxxx.xx.xx.xx or phone Louise on (2)70209
2. Law Admissions Support
Admissions & Outreach Officer
For admissions and LNAT queries, clarification
of deselection reasons and so on
Admissions Co-ordinator
Course 2 Co-ordinator
Course 2 Administrator
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