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Admissions staff will be given professional training under a scheme announced this week by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, writes Alison Goddard.

The scheme - to be launched on July 1 with Universities UK - will enable admissions staff to gain a qualification by demonstrating a range of knowledge, understanding, skills and competencies in areas such as fairness and equal-opportunities legislation.

This week's consultation document on access called for universities to demonstrate that they had professional decision-making processes in place.

The Department for Education and Skills had previously spoken to Ucas about developing a training scheme and had provided funding to do so.

Speaking at Ucas's annual admissions officers conference in Chester on Wednesday, acting chief executive Anthony McClaren said: "As institutions move towards trying to implement some of the challenges, we are in a position to provide them with support and information."

The course is being developed by eight institutions, including Russell Group members, a post-1992 institution, a college of higher education and a further education college. Its content, which is due to be decided in a month's time, will be presented to the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ Vocational Awards Council for accreditation. Ucas hopes that it will be validated by a group of universities and colleges.