Admissions Policy

What should be in our admissions policy?

The IB ask that each school provides an Admission Policy which reflects the philosophy of the IB.

This page identifies the key IB concepts which should inform your policy and some of the issues you may face.

Key IB Concepts

  • Access
  • Inclusion
  • Differentiation (ATT)

Key Issues

  • Access: All students should have access to the Diploma Programme
  • Support for students, to access the programme: clarify role of Counselor / Guidance Service
  • Curriculum offering should be appropriate to needs of students.
  • Placement assessments to ensure students can access the appropriate curriculum / subject choices. However, baseline tests for entry are not in the spirit of the IB.
  • Core: all should be able to access aspects of the CORE even if they are not on an IB Programme.

Key issues to consider

  • Is the criteria you are setting for admission to the Programme clear and communicated to all stakeholders within the school community?
  • How is enrollment in the programme promoted and supported?
  • Does the school have an open access enrollment policy? Are IB programmes open to all students? How does the school promote unrestricted access to all opportunities?
  • Does the schools' IB recruitment efforts target all students and parents, and are they offered early and regularly?
  • Do you have a selection procedure for Diploma students? If so what is it? Is it adequately inclusive?
  • Has the school developed multiple pathways to IB participation for students entering the school, including for students in need of additional preparation?
  • In the case of the diploma programme can all students attempt the full Diploma? If not, what is your criteria for those undertaking the full diploma and for those undertaking courses?
  • Do all students have access to the Diploma Core?
  • Are specific academic guidance policies and practices in place to support all students to achieve at high levels, regardless of prior preparation and personal circumstances?
  • Do students have sufficient access to Higher Level and Standard Level subjects, especially in the Humanities and the Sciences to meet their future aspirations?
  • Are strategies in place to address the obstacles presented by gatekeeper courses like Math and Language B?
  • How are you supporting the students with special educational needs which you are accepting onto the programme?
  • How are you supporting students whose language is not the language of instruction?
  • Do you have a counselor to guide the students in their choices, both of subjects and also when considering the next steps after the Diploma?
  • Are there competing programmes in our school? If so how are decisions made on which a student should choose?
  • Does your policy include evidence of a review process such as the date of the most recent review?

Appendix 1 of the Guide to evaluation (2022) contains a very helpful list of expectations. You can find this document on the Programme Resource Centre (PRC)

    Artefact forum

    Steps

    There are five mandatory IB policies covering the important topics of language (international-mindedness), academic integrity (ethical behaviour), admissions and inclusion (equal opportunities) and assessment (growth culture).

    • Choose one of these five topics.
    • Imagine you are an anthropologist. Choose, find, or create an artefact that represents the topic you have chosen.

    Here are responses from IB educators around the world. I appreciate how they use their own culture as a lens for explaining the policy.

    This is Loki's Castle, a field of hydrothermal vents located in the North Atlantic Ocean.This hidden away deep underground contains oxygen-poor but iron-sulfur rich hydrothermal vents which, according to the most recent scientific findings, hosted the most ancient life form ever known. LUCA: the Last Universal Common Ancestor, was a type of microbe which lived in this environment around 4 billion years ago.

    The evolutionary scientific approach has gathered evidence, by tracing genetic samples far enough back in time, to support the the notion that we are all related to LUCA and have evolved from it. After the Last Universal Common Ancestor, enormous work has been done by biological anthropologists to discern the mysterious processes that have led to the human race.
    This artifact is for me tightly linked to admissions because it makes me think how we all come from the same life-form, therefore we are all related and we are part of the same entity. Due to this, we owe ourselves respect, equity and fairness, meaning that all students should have the same opportunities to participate in an IB programme. Despite coming from the same living being, humans have diverged and developed a large number of cultures and ways of living, which of course generates challenges when education is put into place.

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