Back in 2018, UCAS stopped requiring applicants to disclose “unspent” criminal records on their university application for non-regulated degrees (degrees that do not require an enhanced criminal record check).
Five years on, little is known about how individual higher education providers responded to this change. For instance, have universities stopped requiring applicants to disclose for non-regulated degrees? Or do individual universities ask applicants about their criminal record later in the admissions process, once a UCAS application has been received?
These are some of the questions I set about answering as I started my PhD research at the University of Nottingham, focusing on access to university for people with a criminal record. Back in 2021, I began my research by analysing university admissions policies to explore how 143 of the UK’s universities approached the admissions process for applicants with a criminal record. I have published my findings from this analysis in a recent paper, which aims to set out the complex landscape of university admissions for people with a criminal record.
My analysis has found that 103 UK universities continue to require applicants to disclose either all unspent criminal records, or unspent criminal records for certain offences, before they can enrol on a non-regulated degree course.
