Previous research into status labels showed that some participants did not understand what ‘awaiting conditions’ and ‘ready to enrol’ mean.
This was particularly common for participants who belonged to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The terms did not fit in with their previous experience of using the UCAS service.
What we researched
We were considering:
- replacing ‘awaiting conditions’ with ‘conditions pending’ when a candidate has accepted an offer and has conditions to meet
- replacing ‘ready to enroll’ with ‘recruited’ when a candidate has either met all their conditions or accepted an unconditional offer
We used a survey to find out whether providers understood our proposed status labels.
Who we researched with
The survey was sent to 166 providers. We received 41 responses from:
- 6 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)
- 25 School Centred Initial Teacher Training providers
- 10 School Direct providers
How we did the research
For each status label (‘conditions pending’ and ‘recruited’) we asked participants to:
- describe what they thought it meant
- say whether they thought it meant that an application had received an offer
- say whether they thought it meant that an application had accepted an offer
- read a description of what we intended it to mean, then rate how well it conveyed that meaning
- give alternative suggestions for what we might call that status, saying why they thought their suggestion would be better
Some participants saw ‘conditions pending’ first but others saw ‘recruited’ first.
What we found
We found that:
- most participants understood ‘conditions pending’
- most participants understood that ‘recruited’ is the final status of a successful application, but we cannot be sure that they fully understood what it indicates
- providers have different understandings of what conditions are
Understanding ‘conditions pending’
Most participants described the ‘conditions pending’ status label as we intended it to be understood. However, HEI participants were not sure whether it meant that candidates had accepted an offer.
All participants rated the label positively, apart from the HEI participants.
Participants did not suggest any alternative status labels which we had not already considered.
Understanding ‘recruited’
Most participants described ‘recruited’ as indicating that an offer has been accepted and the candidate is ready to start the course.
Only around half of the participants mentioned conditions. We therefore cannot be certain that ‘recruited’ accurately conveys that the candidate met the conditions if there were any.
When asked to rate the label, 77% of participants rated it as neutral or positive. Half of those who rated it negatively still described it accurately.
Participants did not suggest any alternative status labels which we had not already considered.
Differences in understanding conditions
There are differences in the ways that providers understand and handle conditions.
For example, some providers consider a DBS check to be a condition which must be met before the candidate can be considered to be recruited.
Other providers consider a candidate to be recruited before that point, with a DBS check not a condition but just something which has to happen before the candidate starts the course. They handle this sort of requirement outside of our service.
These differences make it difficult to choose a single status label to replace ‘ready to enroll’ which will be interpreted the same by all providers.