How this research is built, and what it cannot tell you
A register-based programme. Every published statement traces to one row in the Global Elite Selection Monitor, and every row traces to one official primary source, checked on a stated date.
The register
Confidence recorded 1 to 5
Review date recorded per source
Publication ruling per signal
Unit of analysis
One row records one verifiable selection signal: a requirement, stage, assessment, institutional statement or material change. Multiple signals may come from the same source. Each observation is narrowly worded to match its source rather than paraphrased upward.
Cell audit
Every positive cell in the Report 02 market matrix is published with the quoted passage that supports it, its source URL, the retrieval method and date, its verification status and its publication ruling: the cell audit (CSV). Absent cells were searched on the same terms as present ones, under the symmetrical review protocol, and each published sentence is traced to the observations it rests on in the claim dependency manifest (CSV).
Publication rulings
All 107 coded signals were re-checked against their cited source on 9 September 2026 with a full JavaScript render. Each carries a verification status and a publication ruling: published, published as context, or held. Six observations are held because their source now returns a bot-verification interstitial rather than its content; none is asserted in any report. The log is published as the publication-ruling log (CSV). For each of the 67 retrieved sources, the source evidence record (CSV) publishes the URL, the retrieval date, the character count, a SHA-256 of the retrieved text and each quoted passage with its offset, so the check can be repeated. The retrieved page text is not republished: the pages carry their own copyright.
Source standard
Sources are official employer or university pages. Report 01 draws on 48 official sources checked on 30 August 2026, held in a 50-entry source register. Report 02 draws on a purposive six-market sample checked on 31 August 2026, bringing the Monitor to 107 coded signals citing 69 official sources, held in a 71-entry register.
Coding
Report 01 coded signals to categories including live judgement, simulation, case or work simulation, multimodal or technical assessment, problem solving, gamified assessment or whole-person evaluation. Its 6/6 measure covers all observations coded as newly explicit. Report 02's market matrix is binary and conservative: a feature is marked present only where the cited source explicitly describes it.
Eight per market at first publication on 31 August 2026. The United States and Hong Kong carry a ninth signal each, coded on 9 September 2026 while re-verifying the market matrix. Those two were found while looking for support for specific cells, so the sample is no longer equally allocated and the two additions are not a neutral addition to it.
Sampling
Report 01 is a purposive, cross-sectional sample weighted toward the UK, global careers pages, law and banking. Report 02 uses a purposive sample of eight signals per market at first publication, now UK 8, GCC 8, India 8, United States 9, Singapore 8, Hong Kong 9. Signal counts are close but no longer equal. Institution type, programme and applicant stage are not matched either, and the pathways compared are not equivalent.
Material limits
These are purposive samples. Published process pages may omit informal practices and may describe different programmes that are not directly comparable. The dataset cannot establish prevalence, causal change over time, candidate outcomes or institutional intent beyond the stated process.
The geographic sample is too thin for league tables or country rankings. Percentages describe the coded sample only; they are not estimates for any wider market.
Report 02 compares published architecture. It does not rank markets, estimate selectivity, or infer fairness, intent or candidate outcomes. Live verification can protect integrity while also rewarding candidates with more time, coaching and familiarity; this research identifies that tension without measuring it.
Publication rule
Market-wide claims require triangulation across institutions and sectors. Historical trend claims require longitudinal evidence. Each report distinguishes what its sample shows from what remains a hypothesis. No proprietary index will be published until sample size and coding reliability support one.
Independence and corrections
All published material is drawn from public institutional sources. No private client evidence is used in any report. Nothing in this programme implies affiliation with, or endorsement by, any institution referenced. Where an institution is named, the accompanying statement is confined to what that institution itself publishes.
Institutions change their published processes. If a signal attributed to your organisation no longer reflects your current published process, write to hassan@accessecs.com with the current source page. Corrections are made against the source and the review date is updated in the Monitor.
Revision 9 September 2026
Reviewed and approved by the research lead on 9 September 2026. Rulings marked proposed are not yet approved and are identified as such in the log.
Revision 8 September 2026
Evidence dates are unchanged: Report 01 checked 30 August 2026, Report 02 checked 31 August 2026. The 8 September 2026 re-verification checked the coded observations against their official source pages; it did not re-date the evidence.
How this revision was produced: the source pages were retrieved and compared against the register with machine assistance, and every resulting change was reviewed before publication. Coding decisions, publication rulings and corrections remain the responsibility of the research lead.
Versions
Corrections issued to date are listed above. Where a correction changes a published figure, the superseded figure is named rather than removed. Signals are re-checked on the review date carried in the register.
Akram, H. (2026). Methodology and limits. Who Gets In?, Elite Careers Strategy, Global Elite Selection Monitor. www.accessecs.com/who-gets-in/methodology/