Over the past few years, there have been significant changes in US higher education trends. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities no longer require standardized testing, like the ACT and SAT, for admission. As a result, top universities have seen a surge in applications, making admissions even more competitive. Meanwhile, other universities that were once considered target options are now more selective than ever before.
UK universities can capitalize on this by highlighting their own admission processes, which are less reliant on additional factors (supplemental essays, work experience, volunteer experience, leadership experience, academic rigor), and can focus more on the student’s academic profile.
Even though this information presents itself as a positive opportunity, US students are faced with challenges from UK university admissions requiring standardized testing (specifically AP exams) poses a significant barrier to entry for US students.
To prepare for AP exams, students need to plan their coursework starting in 10th grade. Students who didn’t have the opportunity to plan for AP exams previously had the opportunity to take the SAT II Subject Tests as a substitute to fulfill the university’s AP exam requirement. Since the elimination of SAT II Subject Tests in January 2021, this has made UK study more difficult for students to consider.
Moreover, many elite private schools in the US have abolished or are considering abolishing AP exams from their curricula. A recent study done by ACCIS (Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools) in July 2022 collected 163 responses from private school counselors across the US. 62% of counselors reported that their students expressed interest in UK universities, however, 41.8% of private schools do not offer AP classes or exams. If a student doesn’t have access to take AP exams at their school, they could register to take the exam at another school, if that school will offer spots available to outside students. Schools have the option to accept or deny students outside of their classroom if they wish. In addition, students would need to register for the exam several months in advance. This can cause many barriers for the student and the counselor, especially if the student needs to take a specific AP exam to meet a course requirement.
Over 47% of counselors stated that the UK’s testing requirements were a significant deterrent to student interest, and 16% reported that their students did not apply due to the UK’s standardized testing requirements.
These findings suggest that the requirement for AP exams poses a significant barrier to entry for US students. UK universities could receive more applicants and enrollments, particularly from private high-achieving high schools, by adapting their admission requirements to meet the changing needs of the market and capitalize on this opportunity to increase enrollment of US students. This may include highlighting the unique benefits of studying in the UK and offering tailored information on their admission process to provide guidance to prospective students.
In conclusion, UK universities must re-evaluate their admission requirements for US students and consider the detrimental effects of requiring AP exams. By adapting their admission process to meet the changing needs of the market, UK universities can attract more US students and increase their enrollment numbers, ultimately enhancing their global reputation and diversifying their student population.
School Counselor Feedback from Report:
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Please be willing to consider course levels and grades received when evaluating our applicants. We always provide a school profile and are happy to provide more information and context to help you understand our students, their scholastic attainment, and their potential for success at your schools.
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The number of SAT/ACT testing sites, especially here on the West Coast, is staggeringly low. Kids just can’t find a seat to take an SAT or ACT.
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US applicants without access to good counseling around applications won’t know the requirements to apply to the UK. They won’t plan early enough, and may not have access to AP exams.
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Allow submission of graded work in lieu of tests, if assessments in your own programs are not standardized assessments.
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A test flexible approach, allowing SAT, ACT, AP or others might be helpful.
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Conditional offers based on AP tests that are still to be taken during senior year are very challenging for a family to consider given the mismatch in timing with US May reply date for US-based schools.
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Kids are on to how completely ridiculous SAT/ACT tests are. When you require it, they see that as you 1) putting the test before their health, 2) ignoring all the data about how biased the tests are and 3) being a school that isn’t student-centered.
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Schools often limit enrollment in AP classes and then received significant pushback from families who want their students to take every AP in our school; adding in UK admissions pressure will make it seem like students will only be successful if they are in AP courses.
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My school is heavy on APs in STEM but not nearly as many in the humanities. I have students each year who are very strong students with excellent grades who just do not test well when timed and become anxious when they know the scores may keep them from being able to attend a college. UK Universities might consider GPA standards instead of testing.
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My school made a deliberate choice to move away from AP several years ago and we have no wish to return to offering the courses or the exams. Do UK universities fully understand that in asking students to take certain tests, they are asking our schools to adopt a certain curriculum and adhere to a schedule for testing that is developed by an organization in which we have very little say?
Acknowledgement:
A special thank you to Moira McKinnon, Director of College Counseling at Berwick Academy for providing the ACCIS data.
Findings from the article are from the following report:
Christopher, Jackie. ‘Exploring the Opportunities and Impact of the Study UK Campaign in the US.’ British Council, 2023.
4 Responses
Thanks for penning this article, Jackie. You raise very important and relevant points that counselors and students have to seriously consider when discussing options for study in the UK. We are seeing increases in students wanting to have these options but they can be limited in pursuing them due to barriers presented by what should be an optional exam, and it is really no fault of their own. In a world that has become much smaller and more global, and learning that has become more collaborative in scope, it would help for more universities in the UK to develop a more accessible process for helping today’s and tomorrow’s applicants find more pathways to take advantage of the great education available there.
Great article, Jackie. I’m sure this research will be incredibly useful for UK universities when assessing their US entry requirements.
Dear Jackie,
Don’t blame the universities! There are alternative foundation routes to a UK education. But fundamentally our whole system is EXAM based. Terminal nationally agreed standards are the be all and end all and only all of what our government measures in education. For the most part, like 95% or more, our universities are state-funded – what you would consider public. Yes, we love out-of-state, i.e. international students, but the expectation is that you demonstrate purely your academic capability with an exam. There is absolutely nothing holistic in this. Extra-curriculars are relevant only so far as they support your interest or transferable skills in the major you’ve chosen to study. With direct entry undergraduate vet and human medicine at 18, we do want soft skills too – demonstrated over time. For engineering, almost exclusively its the maths and physics ability. If you love literature, you can forget the math (if it isn’t your thing), but we really want to see that love of literature.
A standard UK offer will be based on the curriculum a student takes for the last two years at high school – A levels. Generally, most students take 3, rarely a school will allow 4 subjects. A math student may easily have maths, further maths, and physics as the only subjects they study through junior and senior year.
The broad-based curriculum ends at the end of sophomore year with EXAMS. And as courses get more selective, those grades are looked at by universities too.
There’s no such thing as a transcript. There are only exam grades.
Actually, there are specific exam grades and requirements (generally) if you want to study that subject at university.
Since we don’t do transfers, or liberal arts (as you’d know it in the US – with a tiny handful of kind of exceptions), students choose early on to specialise. Case in point this year, I’ve been working with a student in a US high school offering a full IB Diploma which she’s taken. Only for what she wants to study, she has the ‘wrong’ subjects. Given I work with students all over the world in different national curricula, this is common. An off-the charts great exam score Swiss student I was working with had as her speciality languages; only she wanted to study physics. No matter her exemplary exam grades, which would have satisfied any course in modern languages or literature for direct entry, the only way forward for her was a foundation year to make up what in the Netherlands is called a ‘deficiency’. You need 4 APs too for entry to the research universities in the Netherlands.
Schools do what they consider right or best for the student and the populations they serve. For students with just a US high school diploma look which universities consider you admissible, take the foundation year for students to bring you up to speed in the major. And top tip – look at ‘Into’ https://www.intostudy.com/en/universities.
You need a cultural shift at the governmental level to change the whole education system and what is valued.
Elisabeth Marksteiner based in Cambridge, UK
Jackie, thank you so much for pulling together the information from our survey in a meaningful way. Just this morning I met with a student who is very interested in studying in the UK. We had to talk about how she could arrange her schedule for the next two years to self-study for AP exams, as we do not offer AP courses. I could see her nervousness build as the conversation continued. We want to inspire our students to become global scholars and academic adventurers, but the tests are a serious hurdle for many.