Millions of students have toiled over personal statements but from 2025 onwards students will no longer need to write on… kind of.

UCAS has just announced the findings of a review into the application process for all students applying for undergraduate degrees in the UK. Despite some 72% of candidates feeling positive about the personal statement UCAS has decided that those students applying to start university in 2025 will not need to complete one. This is because over 80% of people asked said that the personal statement was difficult to complete without additional help. This may be why Oxbridge success rates at private schools are so much higher.

They say that:

“While advisers value the role that the process of writing a personal statement plays in helping their students affirm for themselves that they have chosen the right set of courses, support for the existing personal statement process is not universal. A free text opportunity for students to promote themselves, the statement is seen by some commentators as a mechanism to “widen the gap”. Feedback shows fears that students who do not have access to high-quality advice and guidance will not be able to use the statement to shine in the same way that their more advantaged peers can. There are also concerns about the extent to which students understand how providers use personal statements in decision-making.”

At Libra Education, we have observed just that. Even the best of our students struggle when faced with a blank piece of paper and are asked to justify their place at a dream university. Students must develop content, structure and coherent paragraphs even when applying to non-essay-based subjects.

For the past 5 years, Libra has used our own personal statement guide to break down the key ideas for our students. We’ve asked them what their goals are. What they’ve done to pursue them already. How their experiences join up. Taken individually these questions seem easy to tackle and yet when you add them together you obtain a coherent and persuasive personal statement.

It seems UCAS has finally caught up…

Instead of asking for a personal statement, UCAS will instead require students to answer a series of questions. These questions prompt students to consider…

1.     Motivation for the course.

2.     Preparation outside the syllabus.

3.     Readiness for university studies.

4.     Learning style.

The Times reports that in future years you may even be able to include video or multimedia responses in due course although this won’t be introduced for several years.

What to include

In summary, the preparation you need to do for your university application hasn’t changed. You will still need excellent grades, out-of-school projects and competitions and the same body of evidence to show that you are ready for the challenge of university. You’ll include the same information but it will be in a more digestible format.

Remember, the personal statement might be getting simpler in some ways, but that can only mean more competition for places from a broader and more diverse student body. All this is good progress, but if you want a place at Oxbridge of the G5, the fight just got a little harder!