What We Learnt: Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s Supported Application Scheme
By Ashleigh Hope, Head of Access and Participation, Guildhall School of Music & Drama
Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s Supported Application Scheme has hit some significant milestones in the last 12 months. We’ve officially wrapped up five years of operation, with a record number of enrolments – 11% of new UK undergraduate entrants in September 2024. The first cohort of participants to become Guildhall students graduated in November 2023, and are now popping up on screens and stages across the UK. And in the most recent application cycle I fully delegated the running of the Scheme to my wonderful team, as I concentrated on the development of the School’s new Access and Participation Plan. Stepping back has given me the opportunity to reflect on how far the Scheme has come since I first implemented it in 2019, back when I was a team of one.
Why Supported Applications?
The Scheme’s predecessor, application fee waivers, were offered to low-income, London-based applicants 2016-2019. However, without the wide-ranging support now offered, their impact was limited, encouraging prospective students to apply but not aiding their success in the competitive audition and interview process. The Scheme goes substantially further, addressing the specific barriers that exist for underrepresented applicants to Guildhall School. Financial barriers are removed through application fee waivers, audition travel bursaries, funded consultation lessons, free tickets to shows, student finance and budgeting support, and a Start-up Fund on enrolment. Audition and interview barriers are lessened through a range of online and in-person workshops that build confidence, support preparation and develop performance technique. Common misconceptions are addressed through Q&A opportunities with teaching staff, current students, alumni and support services. Belonging is fostered by the supportive Scheme community, the encouragement of the Access and Participation team and workshop leaders, and on-site activity that builds familiarity with our spaces.
We recognise that the applicants we’re working with might not have access to people ‘in the know’. If some young people lack access to quality information and guidance for traditional university applications, imagine them then applying to a specialist institution, that isn’t in UCAS, for a degree with significant competition for limited places, that might lead to a career in an industry that isn’t always valued by policy makers despite its enormous contribution to the UK economy. Imagine them pursuing this application while also contending with common misconceptions surrounding the future prospects of arts graduates and the value of arts degrees, and the concerns these raise for family members, teachers and careers advisors. That’s why there is no such thing as a silly question on the Scheme. The team are there for every participant, pre-application to post-graduation, offering impartial support and advice, particularly important to offer-holders who might be mulling over offers from multiple institutions.
Implementation
The delivery of the Scheme has evolved organically each year, responding to the needs of applicants, external context and fresh ideas from our growing Access and Participation team. Looking back at guidance from when the Scheme launched, I think it’s fair to say I was tentative when predicting the scale and developing processes, as I was very aware of resource limitations at the time and the risk that this posed. Eligibility for the Scheme has also been tweaked over the years, responding to commitments made in our Access and Participation Plans, addressing gaps that we have identified when looking at participant data, and in response to the Cost of Living crisis, which prompted an uplift to our household income threshold.
Activity-wise, our initial intention was to run a few on-site activities and I hadn’t truly explored how to engage applicants not based in London when launching the Scheme. The pandemic forced a creative approach to participant engagement and a move to online activity. In 2020 I ran 21 group online workshops and additional one-to-one online meetings, mostly through our unique, week-long Festival of Support. By 2021, the Festival had grown to 36 online sessions, and the geographical spread of participants was incredible, with 47% of attendees based outside of London – I vividly remember a workshop with applicants joining from Newcastle, Glasgow, Cardiff, Southampton and Devon, highlighting the power and reach of working online. The Festival was well received, with activity focusing on skill development, via workshops such as demystifying Shakespeare and audition technique; wellbeing, which included yoga classes, mindfulness and creative writing; and information and guidance, offering student Q&As and student finance support. Since 2022 the week-long model hasn’t been suitable, as applicants once again have competing priorities and very busy lives. However, the Festival of Support was a fantastic sandbox, allowing us to test what worked with very eager young people, and to build a strong portfolio of online sessions that now run regularly throughout the year, in addition to on-site activity, ensuring Scheme participants can continue to engage irrespective of their location. We are now in the early stages of exploring on-demand resources, which will enable participants to access support at whatever time works best for them.
Finally, through research and consultation, we identified and removed further financial barriers, introducing funded consultation lessons for Music offer-holders, a free ticket to a local theatre production for Production Arts applicants, travel bursaries for applicants travelling to an on-site audition from outside of Greater London, and a Start-Up Fund of £350 for those who enrol. Crucially, we front costs from the outset, making all bookings on behalf of participants – at no point are they burdened with complicated paperwork, or awaiting cash reimbursements.
What is the impact?
The Scheme has now supported over 650 individuals with over 780 applications. Firstly, it is important to note who it has supported – 45% of participants have applied from outside of Greater London, from every nation of the UK. Considering the geographical limitations of the preceding application fee waivers this represents significant growth, and the Scheme’s impact on the demographic of new entrants would likely be reduced without this. Our national reach has supported compliance with the provisions of the School’s Access and Participation Plan, particularly the target to increase the proportion of new entrants with POLAR4 Quintile 1 and 2 postcodes, as 45% of participants based outside of Greater London had a Q1 or Q2 postcode, compared to just 6% of our London-based participants. Though meeting this target is enormously challenging, the Scheme allows us to make every effort to support the applications of those who are from eligible POLAR4 postcodes.
There has been a demonstrable change in application outcomes when compared to the preceding application fee waivers, with 17% of Scheme participants receiving an offer and 10% enrolling, compared to 11% and 7.5% of fee waiver recipients. The offer rate for Scheme participants is 4 percentage points (pp) higher than it is for all other UK undergraduate applicants, with the enrolment rate 2pp higher. Applicants are more likely to accept an offer if they are part of the Scheme than if they are not, and significantly more likely to accept if they are Black, Asian and ethnically diverse; 65% compared to 52% of those not on the Scheme.
It is difficult to anticipate how much more impactful the Scheme can be on application outcomes. Ultimately, success at audition or interview is dependent on individual talent and potential, and while talent can be found everywhere, opportunities to identify and nurture it are still too limited by the decline in arts education provision in UK state schools. The Scheme’s activity can only have so much impact in the short period of time that we work with participants, and so demonstrating causal impact of this activity is a challenge.
An unexpected impact has been the Scheme’s influence on the sector. We have been delighted to see some fellow small and specialist institutions introducing provision inspired by it, and the team has supported colleagues in these institutions with their project development.
Why does it work?
Although I aspire to proactivity in much of the School’s Access and Participation work, I think the Scheme’s greatest strength has been its reactivity and flexibility over the years, and I encourage colleagues across the sector to be open to change. We are hugely receptive to ideas and feedback from participants, students and alumni, and utilise the knowledge of our colleagues in the School to ensure the Scheme can run effectively and that every participant has a positive and insightful experience, irrespective of their application outcome.
Ultimately though, and clichéd as it may be, I think the Scheme’s success is down to the enormous care, compassion and advocacy that has been at the forefront of development and delivery since 2019, and the impact this has for prospective Guildhall School students. The Access and Participation team is integral to the creation of a supportive and inclusive community and to enhancing participants’ sense of belonging, and our openness, authenticity and care is evident from initial enquiry right through to post-graduation. We often joke that we’re the ‘friendly big sisters of Guildhall’, and for an applicant entering the unknown world of auditioning for a conservatoire or drama school, that might be just who they need in their corner.
