We are drawing to the end of what has been a very busy confirmation and clearing period (even though the university didn't go into clearing at all) leading to the registering on the student database of our new intake.  The transfer of their records from their UCAS files to our student records started this afternoon.  And thus in three weeks time we shall see the arrival of over 4200 new home / EU undergraduates as well as (probably) in excess of 700 new overseas undergraduate students.  On top of that there will be 2000 or more new postgraduate students (taught or research) plus several hundred exchange stduents from various countries around the world.

Friends from outside the university world often assume that we close down almost completely over the summer.  Yet the number of people involved in the huge volume of activity that the timeatble for new arrivals entails results in constant pressure throughout this period.  Academic selectors, administrators, and heads of department in all academic departments have pored over UCAS forms and over the aggregate statistics of how their departments are getting on in meeting their planning totals.  And that isn't just for A level results.  This week we have had the confirmation of resaults for August finishers from Sheffield International College to handle as well, with decisions to be made on borderline candidates.  The Student Services Admissions team has been working at full blast, accompanied by colleagues from Planning and Governance Services considering the financial implications of the distributions of admissions numbers around the university.  By next Tuesday I will have chaired three meetings of the University Executive Board at which the admissions position has been the dominant agenda item.  Staff in Accommodation and Campus Services have already sent out around 4000 accommodation contracts since A level results were declared (only 8 days ago) and have received a majority of signed contracts and direct debits back as well.  Student Services is preparing the registration process.  And in every academic department module handbooks are being updated and welcome packs collated.

The pressures on admissions this year brought about by the HEFCE cap on recruitment have led to some of these processes being handled under stronger tensions than is usual.  The bare period of 4 weeks between the declaration of A level results and the start of Intro Week is narrow in the best of years.  The question of whether we as a country should move to a post-qualifications admissions system is something that, in my view, should be aired once again.