Higher education policies for applicants with criminal records in the United Kingdom: Are universities ‘banning the box’?

Abstract

In response to the introduction of the Data Protection Act (2018), the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) no longer require applicants to non-regulated degrees to disclose unspent convictions on their university applications. The UCAS application represents just one stage of the admissions process, but there are other stages where applicants′ criminal history information can be requested. This paper reports the findings from an analysis of 143 university criminal record policies to explore if, how and why applicants′ disclosures are used within the undergraduate admissions process. Findings indicate that 103 institutions continue to make it compulsory for applicants to non-regulated degrees to disclose their unspent criminal record. This requirement has the potential to create challenges for a substantial proportion of the population, should they decide to apply to university. University policies often justify the use of compulsory criminal record disclosures to support `safeguarding procedures´ or as part of their `duty of care towards staff and students´. Yet university policies provide no evidence or explanation to suggest that asking applicants to self-disclose their unspent criminal records effectively supports these aims. Consequently, this paper calls into question the rationalities universities use to justify their practices towards applicants with criminal records.