Sheffield University’s Admissions Process Working in Collaboration with South Yorkshire Teaching Partnership by Jadwiga Leigh, Admissions Tutor.

It’s been an interesting year working with the South Yorkshire TP from an admissions perspective. It began with a meeting where leads from all the authorities came to the University to talk through our current process and critically analyse its strengths and weaknesses. Some good points were raised that day which helped us reconsider what we were doing and how we could make the assessments more inclusive and interesting. Together with Fiona Addison we invited service users and carers into the University to review the interview questions that were already in place and with their help we updated them, making them more relevant to issues they were facing in today’s current climate.

In addition to revising the interview schedule we also added another activity to the interview day: the group test. Much like speed dating, this exercise involved applicants responding to questions posed by different young people and foster carers in a few minutes before moving on to the next person. Although this element is challenging, we have had positive feedback on it from both applicants and the young people and foster carers involved.

Getting through our admissions process was never easy but this year we have been able to really challenge our applicants and as a department we have been pleased with the students who have got through the interview and been accepted on to the course.

Dr Jad Leigh, Lecturer in Social Work, University of Sheffield