Home, heritage and community languages in university admissions
Authors: Dr Adeline Henry and Hannah Murphy
A research team at Queen’s University Belfast – led by Dr Emma Humphries and Professor Janice Carruthers – is currently undertaking a project designed to make university admissions processes more equitable and inclusive with respect to home, heritage, and community languages (HHCLs). In this blog post, Dr Adeline Henry and Hannah Murphy (two members of the research team) demonstrate that tangible, practical measures can be implemented to address existing inequities and enhance the recognition and status of heritage languages.
These developments are especially relevant for heritage language programmes across the United Kingdom, which are well positioned to promote the Toolkit introduced in the project. Moreover, the initiative offers an instructive and inspiring model for institutions and policymakers in other global contexts.
Across the UK, offers to study an undergraduate degree in a university are made on the basis of predicted grades in three A Levels (the examinations taken by most students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland at the end of their secondary school education). These proposed grades are used by university admissions teams as an indication of candidates’ preparedness for progression to higher education. Whilst A Levels are available in a range of home, heritage and community languages (HHCLs, e.g. Bengali, Gujarati, Japanese, Panjabi and Polish), our research shows that university admissions processes do not treat these A Levels in HHCLs on an equal footing with curricular languages (e.g. French, German and Spanish) and languages indigenous to the UK (e.g. Irish and Welsh). Our Toolkit aims to change this.
‘Less valuable’ treatment and perception of HHCL A Levels
Research shows that there is a perceived hierarchy of languages in the UK which ranks HHCLs as less valuable than English and curricular languages. This hierarchy, which we often see played out in the media, is also found in the attitudes of pupils at primary and secondary level in terms of how they value their HHCL, in school policy and practice, with some caregivers, and in admissions processes in many universities.
A Levels in HHCLs are not always accepted as part of an applicant’s A Level profile across UK universities. This can happen because universities perceive candidates with HHCL A Levels to have significant prior exposure or ‘native’ language competence, and that therefore their qualifications were not sufficiently challenging.
This barrier, which is often not explicit in admissions policies, negatively impacts the diversity of applicants who have access to university and affects A Level candidates’ ability to make informed choices for their academic future.
Dismantling the barrier: The Admissions Toolkit
A team of researchers at Queen’s University Belfast (led by Dr Emma Humphries and Professor Janice Carruthers) is currently working on a project that aims to make university admissions processes fairer and more inclusive when it comes to HHCLs. The project is developing, piloting and rolling out an Admissions Toolkit and will then go on to develop, design and disseminate a reframed version of its contents for university undergraduate applicants and those who support them.
The admissions Toolkit guides university admissions teams through an evaluation of their policies, looking at the transparency, visibility and phrasing of these, and advocates for best practice in the field of HHCL A Levels. The goal of the Toolkit is to try and encourage positive changes to policies and increase their visibility and transparency, thus supporting best practice in university admissions, ensuring that policies are equitable and inclusive and that all applicants have fair access to university.
Materials for students applying for university and their caregivers
To make sure that applicants and their supporters have the best information possible, we are developing a ‘pupil-friendly’ version of the Toolkit, aiming to give practical advice for pupils, teachers and caregivers who are supporting potential university applicants. This version of the Toolkit will guide applicants and supporters on how to check university admissions policies carefully before applying, and what to do if a HHCL policy is not visible. This will be accompanied later in 2026 with a webinar for caregivers, applicants and school teachers involved in A Levels and progression to university. Our goal is to ensure that young people can feel confident in their decision-making when it comes to university choices and, ultimately, to raise the perceived value of all languages in the UK.
Top tips for HHCL A level students
For the time being, here are our top tips for HHCL A Level students who are applying to UK universities...
- Before applying to a university, make sure to check their admissions policy webpage for information on acceptance of HHCLs. Sometimes, universities refer to HHCLs as ‘native’ languages, so make sure to check for different terms too.
- If you can’t see any information about HHCLS don't assume they are accepted. Get in contact with the university to ask – they should have an admissions e-mail or enquiry box linked or on the same webpage.
- If you get a response that is unclear, e-mail toolkit@qub.ac.uk (we can try to help!).
This Toolkit has been designed by a team at Queen’s University Belfast (Dr Emma Humphries, Professor Janice Carruthers, Dr Daniel McAuley, Hannah Murphy and Dr Adeline Henry). It is based on research conducted by members of the team as part of the AHRC-funded Modern Languages Leadership Fellowship held by Professor Carruthers.