For applicants from the UK that are eligible for Home tuition fees, contextual information is used to gain a more complete picture of the educational and individual context of an applicant. This allows our admissions selectors to assess achievement and potential whilst recognising the challenges an applicant may have faced in their educational or individual circumstances.
What contextual information is used?
The following seven pieces of contextual information,supplied by UCAS will be flagged for the attention of the admissions selector:
1. Time spent in local authority care. This information is self-declared on the UCAS form and verified at a later stage.
2. The performance of the school/college where the applicant took their GCSEs (or equivalent qualification). Specifically, where the school’s or college’s performance is below the national average.
3. The performance of the school/college where the applicant took their A-levels (or equivalent qualification). Specifically, where the school’s or college’s performance is below the national average.
4. The home postcode of the applicant is compared against the POLAR 4 dataset. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) assess how likely young people from different postcodes are to progress to Higher Education. We will flag applicants with postcodes in quintiles 1 and 2 (the 40 per cent least likely to attend university). The Office for Students has a POLAR 4 postcode checker on their website.
5. The home postcode of the applicant is compared against the IMD (Indices of Multiple Deprivation) dataset. We will flag applicants with postcodes in quintiles 1 and 2 (the 40 per cent most deprived areas). The UK Government has a postcode checker on their website.
6. Participation in an LSE Widening Participation (WP) programme. Applicants who have completed an LSE WP programme, including LSE CHOICE, LSE Pathways to Law, LSE Pathways to Banking and Finance or LSE Year 11 Summer School.
7. Other individual circumstances that may have disrupted or adversely affected an applicant’s education and achievement, as outlined in an Extenuating Circumstances Form.
How is contextual information used?
Applicants who have been flagged for the attention of the admissions selector will receive additional consideration.The selector may use this information in the following ways:
- to make an applicant a standard offer where the applicant’s academic record (eg, GCSEs/AS levels or equivalent) or personal statement may be marginally less competitive than the cohort overall
- to make an applicant a standard offer where the applicant is predicted marginally below the usual entry requirements
- when making confirmation decisions for offer holders that have marginally failed to meet the entry criteria (usually this means one grade below the standard entry requirements).
LSE is also piloting a contextual offer scheme for eligible students (students flagged as POLAR4 Quintile 1, IMD Quintile 1, as a care leaver or as a participant in an LSE WP programme) applying for 2021 entry, where the contextual offer is one grade lower than the standard offer for the programme. Any mathematics requirement must still be met.
The following academic departments are participating in the contextual offer pilot scheme:
- Department of Accounting
- Department of Anthropology (excluding ML16 BA Anthropology and Law)
- Department of Economic History
- Department of Geography and Environment
- Department of Government
- Department of International History
- Department of International Relations
- Department of Law
- Department of Management
- Department of Mathematics
- Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method
- Department of Social Policy
- Department of Sociology
- Department of Statistics
The contextual offer grades are listed alongside the standard offer A-level entry requirements on the relevant programme pages.
Contextual information is used as part of the holistic admissions assessment and applicants are assessed alongside all other similar applicants, therefore having a contextual flag does not guarantee that an offer will be made.