Tag: applications

  • The Impact of AI on Student Placement Applications

    The Impact of AI on Student Placement Applications

    On today’s HEPI blog, Adam Lindgreen, C. Anthony Di Benedetto, Roderick J. Brodie, and Michel van der Borgh explore how researchers can successfully navigate the challenges of cross-disciplinary research to address major societal issues. If you’ve ever wondered how experts from different fields can effectively collaborate despite differing terminologies, cultures, and incentives, this blog offers practical strategies and insights. You can read the blog here.

    Below, Dave McCall and Zoë Allman discuss what AI means for those students seeking to undertake placements while they study.

    ***Sign up now for Wednesday’s lunchtime webinar on the school curriculum and how it can prepare students for higher education: register at this link.***

    • Dave McCall is a Placement Tutor, De Montfort University (DMU), and Zoë Allman (@zoe_a) is Associate Dean (Academic) at DMU.   

    As higher education explores the impact of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), colleagues from De Montfort University examine the use of AI in student placement applications.

    Generative AI is transforming student placements. Year-long industry placements offer professional growth and employability, bridging academic learning and practical experience. Supported by universities, students are encouraged to maximise learning opportunities in the workplace and reflect on their experiences.

    We increasingly find students using AI in placement applications, mirroring its role in their academic journey and in preparation for graduate employment. We consider how AI is used (and embedded) to improve the chances of securing a placement through searches, applications, and interview preparation, while also recognising the challenges this presents.  

    Placement Searching

    AI algorithms shape how students search for placements. Platforms like LinkedIn and Glassdoor recommend opportunities tailored to users’ profiles and preferences, streamlining the process. However, this personalisation may also limit exploration, narrowing exposure to diverse job types and industries. The National Association of Colleges and Employers highlights how reliance on AI-generated job recommendations might lead students to miss opportunities, whilst the USA-based National Association of Colleges and Employers highlights how students might miss diverse opportunities by relying exclusively on AI-generated job recommendations. 

    Not Forgetting ChatGPT

    Generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, have become popular with students when developing search strategies, alongside drafting emails, generating lists of companies in niche fields, or refining search terms for specific industries. While useful, such tools demand a certain level of digital literacy to optimise outputs effectively. Research indicates AI’s effectiveness is limited by the quality of user prompts, underscoring the need for universities to provide AI literacy training to help students optimise their interactions with these tools while addressing the potential digital literacy skills gap. Targeting this developmental training in placement searching and application is critical for ensuring positive experiences on placement and future graduate outcomes. 

    AI Applications

    Having been used in searches, AI is increasingly used as students develop their placement applications. Students employ generative AI to draft and tailor CVs and cover letters, quickly generating professional documents. Tools like Resumé Worded enable students to format and optimise applications for use in Applicant Tracking Systems. While efficient, over-reliance on AI risks producing applications lacking originality; a reliance on AI raises concerns about authenticity and self-reflection. AI use can lead to generic applications, potentially reducing a student’s ability to articulate their individualised experiences, values, and what they bring to the placement role.

    Universities can address this by supporting students to understand how to balance AI-assisted optimisation with authentic self-expression. Workshops encouraging reflective practices help students integrate personality in applications, with feedback reinforcing human input.

    Preparing for Interview

    AI’s role in interview preparation is multifaceted, simulating interviews through generating questions and offering feedback. A student preparing for an engineering placement might use ChatGPT to generate technical and behavioural questions, refining responses through iterative feedback. AI-powered simulations offer ‘real-time’ feedback, enhancing confidence.

    Beyond verbal preparation, AI tools like HireVue analyse tone, facial expressions, and word choice. While these technologies offer valuable insights to employers regarding applicants, they also introduce potential ethical concerns, including the possibility of bias in AI-driven evaluation.   While providing valuable employer insights, these technologies raise ethical concerns, including AI-driven bias.

    Levelling the Playing Field?

    AI tools can help students practice and enhance their skills and experiences but also raise concerns regarding accessibility and equity. Access to advanced AI tools and the digital literacy required to use them effectively is not necessarily evenly distributed among students. This digital divide could exacerbate existing inequalities, particularly for students from underrepresented backgrounds.  Universities play a vital role in educating students to understand the capabilities and limitations of AI tools, enabling them to use these technologies effectively and ethically. 

    Working with Employer Partners

    Collaboration with industry partners remains essential. Understanding AI’s influence on recruitment strategies allows universities to align student support with industry expectations, preparing students for contemporary hiring processes.

    AI is undeniably reshaping the employability landscape. However, its integration challenges traditional career development approaches, raising equity, ethics, and authenticity concerns. Universities must adapt by equipping students with skills such as effective prompt engineering to navigate AI-driven processes. Recent reports highlight the need for universities to prepare students for AI-driven assessments, combining technical proficiency with critical thinking and ethical awareness. Aligning employability programs with these insights enables students to harness AI’s full potential while maintaining human-centred career development. 

    As AI transforms placement applications, universities play a pivotal role in preparing students for this reality. By promoting AI literacy and reflective practices and addressing equity and ethics, universities can empower students to approach placement applications with confidence and integrity. AI should serve as an enhancement tool rather than a barrier. Supporting students in understanding and appropriately using AI tools best prepares them for achieving professional aspirations.

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  • Income-driven repayment applications on hold for three months

    Income-driven repayment applications on hold for three months

    Student loan borrowers won’t be able to apply for income-driven repayment plans for at least three months, The Washington Post reported.

    The Post obtained a memo sent last week from the Department of Education to student loan servicers directing them to stop processing all income-driven repayment and consolidation applications until at least May. The memo offers more clarity on how the department plans to proceed after a federal appeals court blocked the department from implementing a new income-driven repayment option for borrowers put in place by the Biden administration. That injunction also implicated parts of other income-driven repayment plans.

    Up until this point, all that student aid experts knew was that the department had disabled new online applications. Now, they know that all existing applications have also been included in the freeze.

    The application freeze is a problem for some borrowers who rely on income-driven repayment plans for more affordable payments and to avoid default. Under the plans, borrowers’ monthly payments are based on their disposable income and other factors, and after 20 to 25 years of payment, the remaining balance would be forgiven. But now, millions of borrowers no longer have access to IDR and are left with only the most expensive loan repayment options.   

    Scott Buchanan, executive director of the Student Loan Servicing Alliance, a trade group for loan servicers, told the Post that “there is a lot to clean up.”

    “We will be working for [the Office of Federal Student Aid] to implement that transition once courts clear things up and bring some finality so borrowers can have certainty and confidence in their options now and in the future,” Buchanan said.

    The Education Department has said the pause is necessary under the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruling, but paper applications for loan consolidation will be allowed. 

    “A federal Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction preventing the U.S. Department of Education from implementing the SAVE Plan and parts of other income-driven repayment (IDR) plans,” a department spokesperson said. So “The department is reviewing repayment applications to conform with the Eighth Circuit’s ruling.” 

    But legal experts on federal loans have told Inside Higher Ed taking down the applications entirely is not necessary. As the department noted in its statement, the injunction only declares “parts” of the IDR plans—such as the end-of-program loan forgiveness—illegal. It does not ban the use of lessened monthly payments.

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  • More engineering applications don’t make for more engineers

    More engineering applications don’t make for more engineers

    The latest UCAS data (applications by the January ‘equal consideration’ deadline) suggests a 14 per cent increase in applications to engineering and technology courses.

    It’s the second double-digit surge in two years.

    Good news, right? Sadly, it’s mostly not.

    STEM swing

    The upsurge in interest in engineering can be seen as part of a “swing to STEM” (science, technology, engineering, and medicine).

    As higher education has shifted to a reliance on student debt for funding, many people suspect applicants have felt greater pressure to search for clear, transactional returns which, it may seem, are offered most explicitly by STEM – and, most particularly, by engineering, which is not just STEM, but vocational too.

    Certainly, there’s a keen labour market for more engineers. Engineering UK has suggested the shortfall is around 29,000 graduates every year. According to the British Chambers of Commerce, it’s pretty much the largest skills gap in the UK economy.

    Engineering is also a key driver of the growth that the government is so keen to stimulate, adding £645b to the UK – that’s nearly a whopping third of the entire value of the economy. And – unlike financial services, say – engineering is a powerhouse of regional development as it is spread remarkably evenly throughout the country.

    And it drives that other key government mission, opportunity. An engineering degree confers a higher and more equal graduate premium than almost any other discipline.

    The downside

    So with all these benefits, why is the increase in engineering applications not good news?

    The answer is because it reveals the extent of the lost opportunity: most of these extra potential engineers will be denied places to study, dashing their hopes and the hopes of the country.

    Last year’s rise in applications did not lead to a rise in the number of UK engineering students. Absolute student numbers have more or less stagnated since 2019.

    It used to be that the number of engineering applications broadly aligned with places because it was a highly regarded discipline with great outcomes that universities would expand if they felt they could. The limiting factor was the number of able students applying.

    Now that demand outstrips supply, universities cannot afford to expand the places because each additional UK engineering student represents an ever-growing financial loss.

    Engineering courses are among the most expensive to teach. There are long contact hours and expensive facilities and materials. The EPC estimates the average cost per undergraduate to be around £18,800 a year. Even allowing for top-up funding that is available to many engineering degrees on top of the basic fee income, that leaves an average loss of £7,591 per year.

    It used to be that the way to address such losses was to try to admit more students to spread the fixed costs over greater numbers. That did run the risk of lowering standards, but it made financial sense.

    Now, however, for most universities, the marginal cost of each additional student means that the losses don’t get spread more thinly – they just keep piling up.

    Cross-subsidy

    The only way out is to bring in ever more international students to directly subsidise home undergraduates.

    Although the UCAS data shows a glimmer of hope for recovering international demand, at undergraduate level, there are only a few universities that can make this work. Most universities, even if they could attract more international engineering students, would no longer use the extra income to expand engineering for home students, but rather to shore up the existing deficits of maintaining current levels.

    The UCAS data also show higher tariff institutions are the main beneficiaries of application increases at the expense of lower tariff institutions which, traditionally have a wider access intake.

    What this means is that the increased demand for engineering places will not lead to a rise in engineering student numbers, let alone in skilled engineers, but rather a narrowing of the access to engineering such that it becomes ever harder to get in without the highest grades.

    High prior attainment correlates closely with socioeconomic advantage and so, rather than engineering playing to its strength of driving social mobility, it will run the risk of becoming ever more privileged.

    What about apprenticeships?

    Not to worry, suggests Jamie Cater, head of employment and skills at trade body Make UK, a university degree is not the only option available for acquiring these skills and “the apprenticeship route remains highly valued by manufacturers”.

    That’s small comfort, I’m afraid. The availability of engineering higher apprenticeships suggests competition is even fiercer than it is for degrees and, without the safeguard of fair access regulation, the apprenticeship access track record is poor. (And don’t get me started on drop-outs.)

    This is why I haven’t unfurled the bunting at applicants’ rising enthusiasm for engineering.

    Of course, it is wonderful that so many young people recognise engineering as a fulfilling and forward-looking discipline. An estimated £150m has been spent the last decade trying to stimulate this growth and there are over 600 third sector organisations working in STEM outreach in schools. It would be nice to think this has not been wasted effort.

    But it’s hard to celebrate a young person’s ambition to be an engineer if it’s likely to be thwarted. Similarly, I struggle to summon enthusiasm about kids wanting to get rich as TikTok influencers. Indeed, it’s all the more tragic when the country actually does need more engineers.

    This is why the Engineering Professors’ Council has recently called on the government to plug the funding gap in engineering higher education (and HE more widely) in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review.

    Asking for nearly a billion pounds may seem ambitious, but the ongoing failure to fill the engineering skills gap may well be costing the country far more – possibly, given the importance of engineering to GDP, more than the entire higher education budget.

    Johnny Rich is Chief Executive of the Engineering Professors’ Council, the representative body for UK Engineering academics.

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  • Podcast: Cuts, applications, campus climate

    Podcast: Cuts, applications, campus climate

    This week on the podcast as news of further redundancies sweeps the sector, we ask how bad things can get before the government will act or the public notice.

    Plus UCAS end of cycle applications data has arrived, there’s a new report on the campus encampments, and there’s data futures news to get across.

    With Alex Stanley, Vice President for Higher Education at the National Union of Students, Eve Alcock, Director of Public Affairs at the Quality Assurance Agency, James Coe, Associate Editor at Wonkhe, David Kernohan, Deputy Editor at Wonkhe and presented by Mark Leach, Editor-in-Chief at Wonkhe.

    Read more

    An early look at 2023–24 financial returns shows providers working hard to balance the books.

    Lessons for leaders from the campus encampments.

    UCAS End of Cycle provider data, 2024.

    Data futures, reviewed.

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  • Rise in college applications driven by minority students

    Rise in college applications driven by minority students

    The number of first-year applicants this cycle is up 5 percent over January of last year, according to a new report from Common App, and overall applications rose 7 percent.

    The growth was buoyed by a sharp uptick in underrepresented students: Latino applicants increased 13 percent, Black applicants by 12 percent and first-generation applicants by 14 percent. Asian applicants rose by 7 percent, while the number of white applicants didn’t change.

    A Common App analysis also found that the number of applicants from low-income neighborhoods increased more than those from neighborhoods above the median income level—by 9 percent, compared to 4 percent. And the number of applicants who qualify for a fee waiver is up 10 percent so far.

    Geographically, applicant trends seemed to follow broader demographic trends; they surged by 33 percent in the Southwest, with a 36 percent boost in Texas alone, while every other region remained relatively stable. The Western region saw applicants decline by 1 percent.

    In general, students are applying to about the same number of schools as last year, with only a 2 percent increase in applications per student. Public institutions have received 11 percent more applications, while private ones have received 3 percent more.

    For the first time since 2019, domestic applicant growth outpaced that of international applicants, with the former increasing by 5 percent and the latter slowing to 1 percent. Certain high-volume countries experienced steep declines: The number of applicants from Africa fell by 14 percent, and Ghana in particular saw a 36 percent decrease. Applicants from other increasingly popular source countries for international students surged; Bangladesh, for instance, saw 45 percent growth.

    The number of applicants who submitted test scores was about even with the number who didn’t. For the past four years, since test-optional policies were implemented in 2020, no-score applicants have significantly outnumbered those who submitted scores, but institutions returning to test requirements may be swinging the pendulum back.

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  • Uni equity scholarship applications up 35%

    Uni equity scholarship applications up 35%




    By: Erin Morley

    in News, Top Stories


    December 9, 2024

    The admissions centre that handles university applications in NSW and the ACT has said students applying for equity scholarships has surged more than 35 per cent this year.

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