Applications to university

Applying for higher education (HE) courses

Applications for most HE courses are made through the Universities and College Admissions Service UCAS. For most courses, you need to apply between 1 September and 31 January. There are exceptions to this, applications to:

  • Oxford and Cambridge must be submitted by 16 October

  • dentistry, medicine, veterinary medicine and veterinary science must be submitted by 15 October
  • art and design course deadlines may vary. Check with individual institutions or, see UCAS
  • some music courses at nine UK conservatoires, must be submitted by 2 October, other courses offered by conservatoires have a deadline of 31 January, see UCAS Conservatoires

  • for some specialist dance and drama courses, you apply directly to the institution or see UCAS Conservatoires

You can apply for up to five courses, unless you are applying for medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine or veterinary science. You can only choose four of these courses.

Writing a personal statement for your UCAS application

Your personal statement is one of the most important parts of your application. You have 4,000 characters, or 47 lines of text, to express your knowledge and enthusiasm for a subject and explain why you would like to study it. You also need to show that you have the skills, qualities and ability to study the course.

You need to explain and show why the course excites you. Admissions tutors say that 80% of your personal statement should be made up of evidence that demonstrates your interest in the subject you have applied to study.

The UCAS website has lots of resources to help you write your personal statement, see https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/applying-university/writing-personal-statement/how-write-personal-statement for more information and advice. 

Do not copy prepared personal statements on to your form. UCAS has software to detect these and will inform the universities you have applied to.

Your school or college will add a reference to your application and forward it to UCAS.

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