How Entry Profiles can benefit your conservatoire

  • Entry Profiles help applicants to choose the course that is right for them, as they can see if their expected qualifications, skills and experience fit the description of the type of student the course admission staff are looking for.
  • Entry Profiles give admissions tutors and others involved in compiling them the opportunity to think about what it is they are looking for in their applicants and to outline this in the Entry Profiles. Better personal statements by applicants should result from the provision of good Entry Profiles.
  • Increased transparency in Entry Profiles will assist applicants from widening participation backgrounds, mature applicants and those with diverse qualifications who are thinking about applying to higher education.
  • Entry Profiles indicate good customer care and so should be considered as part of a conservatoire's Customer Service Management approach (CSM). If applicants see poor Entry Profiles, or none at all, they may feel the conservatoire is not interested in them.
  • More and better information through Entry Profiles should lead to improved market awareness and thus assist the marketing of the conservatoire's courses.
  • Entry Profiles are an easy way for conservatoires to make sure applicants are aware of how they use contextual data at the time of application or at other times - if indeed they do use it.
  • Research by the National Disability Team (NDT) and Skill has shown that prospective disabled applicants often need longer to research their choices prior to going into HE. Full provision of Entry Profiles will assist not only disabled people but all applicants in their research.
  • A number of institutions have found it useful to include the development of an Entry Profile as a standard part of internal approval arrangements for a new course and / or as part of preparing a programme specification.
  • Conservatoires will need to think about their requirements for the new 14-19 curriculum in England (eg the new Diplomas, Extended Projects, policy on A* grades) as well as existing vocational qualifications and developments in other parts of the UK.
  • Entry Profiles can be updated at any time of year, so that conservatoires can ensure that the information provided is always correct and up-to-date.

Adapted from:
Entry Profiles - Key messages and benefits for HEIs
Supporting Professionalism in Admissions (SPA)/Delivery Partnership, November 2007

For more information about the work of SPA, please visit its website: www.spa.ac.uk.