'Ban the Box' Spreads to Britain

British universities will no longer require applicants to declare previous criminal convictions, The Guardian reported. Ucas, the admissions service for the country's universities, said that for the admissions cycle for September 2019, it would drop the box that ex-offenders have had to check acknowledging their convictions, which critics have viewed as a deterrent to applying and as a potential source of bias during institutions' reviews of applicants.

Increasing numbers of American universities have made decisions to "ban the box," as advocates have sought, and higher ed groups have urged Congress to pass legislation doing so.