The United Kingdom probably has the most organised method of application in the whole world. All four countries comprising the UK, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland depend on a single system of college application.
This system is called Universities and Colleges Application Service or UCAS for short.
Every university applicant has to apply to a maximum of five universities through this system.
UCAS has its own set of rules and these rules and deadlines are common to all the universities in the UK except certain universities - Oxford and Cambridge.
UCAS deadlines
The deadline for submitting the application to all schools other than Oxbridge is 6 pm UK time, 15th January.
For Oxbridge, the deadline for submission to either one of these universities is three months in advance, 6 pm UK time,15th October.
Now, the UCAS application is fairly simple and self explanatory. There are multiple guides available online and on the official UCAS website as well. These guides contain information on how to apply and what is part of the application. (I have put a link to the official UCAS guide at the end of the article). I will be citing the main points, but I would recommend reading the guide through completely as well.
Firstly, if you are considering applying, the board you have studied in plays a role. Most universities only accept students who have studied in CBSE or ISC curriculum and of course students who studied in the IB curriculum. This said, some universities, for example Southampton University and University of Reading accept students having studied in the state board as well. Namely, the Karnataka board, Maharashtra board and West Bengal board (the states are different for 2 or 3 universities).
When you apply to university, your 12th grade results would not have come, and you will have to submit the marks you obtained in either the 11th grade final exams or the 12th grade first term exams. Depending on the subject you have applied for you will also have to submit some written work that has been done in the past 6 months and it also has to be graded by your teacher, for some universities. Most universities don’t require the work to be graded.
The medium of teaching in the UK is predominantly English (with the exception of Wales where Welsh is also used). To be eligible to even apply to any university in the UK, you must have passed the TOEFL exam or the IELTS exam. The passing grade required is different for different universities, but the minimum is 50%.
Now, coming to UCAS. According to the UCAS system, you can apply to only 5 courses. You can either apply to five universities for the same course or to one university for five courses. The latter is done very rarely as the option to do so is available in only a few universities. Most of the major universities don’t provide this alternative.
When you apply through UCAS, you need to submit certain documents:
Copy of passport or visa
Academic records
English language qualification certificate (IELTS/TOEFL test)
One personal statement for all the courses you have chosen
One recommendation letter for all courses in all universities (if you want to include another reference letter you can directly send it the university that is interested)
These are all the basic requirements that will make you eligible to apply to universities in the UK.
After you have submitted your application, you will either have to write a test specifically for that university or you will directly be called for an interview based on the quality of your personal statement and your previous academic performance and in some cases the written work you have submitted.
If you pass the interview round, you will get a letter through post saying that you have been offered a place or that you have been rejected. If you receive a letter bearing good news, then it will most likely come as a conditional offer. This means that you will have to obtain certain marks to be a student at that university, but as of now, you already are. Sometimes, if you have already got an average (of your 3 previous exams) above the requirement, you will be given an unconditional offer.
After you receive your letter, you will have to send them a mail confirming or rejecting your seat in that university. In some cases this mail is to be sent after you have received your 12th grade final exam marks.
If you have obtained the required marks and have also confirmed your seat, then congratulations! You are officially a student of that university!
The link to the official guide for applying through UCAS is : https://www.ucas.com/file/376/download?token=Gym_6UaB
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Thank you for reading this article, I hope it was helpful :)