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UCAS stands for Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. It is a centralised service that students use to apply to university. Almost everyone who wants to study an undergraduate degree in the UK will make their application through UCAS.
Students can access a wide range of information and support through UCAS’s online services, to select their options, complete their application and send it off to their chosen universities.
What does it mean?
Step-by-step guide
- Sign Up to UCAS Hub – Here you can find lots of different resources to help you make an informed decision about your future, including university course overviews, dates and deadlines, and a tariff point calculator.
- Register with UCAS – This is your first step in applying to university!
- Apply online using UCAS – When applying, you need to ensure that you have all your personal information to hand. You will also need to write your personal statement, which is 4000 characters long! This allows you to express why you are interested in a particular course, and what skills and experience you have to offer. Take your time on this, it’s important!
- Universities consider your application – Once you’ve submitted your application, the universities you have applied to will start making decisions, which you will be able to review on UCAS Track.
- Universities give offers or rejections – You will receive email updates from the universities you have applied to once they have made a decision about your application. Your offers may be conditional or unconditional.
- Make your firm and insurance choice – Once you have received all of your offers, you will need to select your firm and insurance choice (i.e. your first choice university and your back-up choice university). Once this has been submitted, it cannot be changed.
- No offers? If you did not receive any offers, don’t worry! You can apply to another university and course through UCAS Extra!
- Collect your results – You should check your UCAS Track to find out if you’ve been accepted by your firm or insurance choices, even if you didn’t meet the conditions of your offers, you may still have been accepted.
- If you did not get in – it is important to talk to an adviser in your school or college about your options. There will be many alternative routes available to you through Clearing.
