This supplies MEM – the multiple equality measure for applicants. MEM calculates the probability of your applicants entering higher education based on several equality factors, enabling contextual admissions.
Providers have told us how valuable access to additional equality dimensions would be – especially in light of the challenges faced this year. Therefore, we’ve enriched the contextual information for 18 and 19 year old English applicants using the MEM framework.
This new variant, called MEM2020, will be available to you from early August to support decision-making over Confirmation and Clearing. It will incorporate:
- free school meals eligibility at age 15
- where applicants live, using POLAR4 data
- income deprivation affecting children index (IDACI)
- school performance based on attainment
- school type
Signing up for MEM2020
Existing MCDS customers will receive MEM2020 via MOVEit automatically, in the same format as existing data – so there is no need to sign up. If you don’t currently subscribe to MCDS, but want to access MEM2020, simply complete our web form.
What you’ll receive as part of MEM2020
The MEM2020 data will be available from early August – before this, we’ll send instructions and a video overview to providers who sign up. On a daily basis you’ll then receive two CSV files:
- MEM2020 data for students who have applied to you. If you already subscribed to MCDS, this is in addition to the file you currently receive.
- Anonymised MEM2020 data for all applicants, enabling you to access the data for applicants you’re in contact with during Clearing. To comply with GDPR, the data will be anonymised, meaning during your conversations with applicants you’ll need to obtain their PID to access and attribute their MEM2020 record.
We hope the enriched information provides valuable insight throughout Confirmation and Clearing. We appreciate incorporating MEM2020 into existing tools (such as web-link) would be providers’ preference. However, it hasn’t been possible for this cycle. If we are able to consume this data for future cycles, our ambition is to integrate contextual data and information into a single service.
If you’ve got any questions, please email mcds@ucas.ac.uk.