Number of suspect university applications trebles

A total of 8,458 university applicants were flagged up as having similarities in their personal statements in 2011, compared with 2,450 in 2010, according to figures released by admissions body Ucas. In 2008, 3,098 applicants had their statements flagged.

As part of the application process, would-be students are asked to write a personal statement containing their achievements, skills and any information they feel will make them stand out from the crowd. the personal statement is a student’s opportunity to sell themselves to universities

Ucas uses specialist software called CopyCatch to check personal statements against others in the system for similarities. Ucas said the sharp rise in the number of flagged applicants last year has been attributed to the introduction of a more stringent threshold for picking up these similarities.

Any statements that are flagged up are checked, and that information can be passed on to the university to which a student is applying.

It is down to the institution to decide how to deal with the situation, such as putting a warning on the student’s application or asking for the statement to be rewritten.

Ucas said that the number of applicants that were flagged last year represented 1 per cent of all applications. Three in ten were university applicants from outside of the EU.

Andrea Robertson, director of customer operations at Ucas, said the detection system had been set up after requests from universities.

She said: “Back in 2007, we did have an approach from institutions to say they felt they were receiving a number of applications where at least some of the personal statement was being copied from sources available on the internet.”

She said some had been copied from other applicants, and added: “It is up to universities and colleges as to how they actually treat the applicants. A number do have some very specific policies in place.”