Application process

Your students can make up to five choices on their application. Applying for a selection of courses should increase their chances of receiving an offer. Applicants who apply to less than five choices can add further choices until 30 June 2009 (11 June 2009 for Route B art and design applications) as long as they have not accepted or declined any offers.

Your students should be aware of the following restrictions.

  • No more than four choices in any one of the following areas: medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine or veterinary science
  • No more than three choices for Route B art and design courses
  • No more than one choice at either the University of Cambridge or Oxford University (students who already hold a degree, or will have successfully completed a degree by September 2009, can apply to both universities).

When your students should apply

Important dates for 2009 applications

We recommend that you encourage your students to complete their applications in advance of the deadline. This gives you the chance to check their applications and deal with any enquiries as well as allowing their referees enough time to make a considered statement.

Universities and colleges try to give equal consideration to all applications received by the deadline. Consideration of late applications is at their discretion. Students who apply late should explain any reasons for the delay in the 'personal statement' section of the application.

Closing dates are the same for any of your students who wish to make a deferred application. Please note that students applying in 2009 for deferred entry in 2010 need to be aware that they will be expected to meet the entry requirements by 31 August 2009. If an applicant who has already sent their application to us decides that they would like to defer to 2010 entry, they should contact the universities or colleges directly.

Any applications received on or after the 1 July 2009 will enter Clearing.

How your students should apply

We will not send out any paper application forms for 2009 entry unless there are exceptional circumstances for needing a paper version.

Apply is our secure web-based application system. It is easy and intuitive to use and will help your students to make accurate and timely applications. They can use Apply anywhere that has internet access and can rework and resave their application as often as necessary.

Apply also allows you to check their applications, recommend corrections and send them to us. We recommend that you pay particular attention to the 'choices' and 'education' sections. This is to ensure that they have entered the correct details.

If your students are taking, or have taken, a GCE or VCE award, they may enter details for the units that make up this award. For certificated qualifications they are recommended to include details of all units with a separate result/grade, but which are incorporated into the overall qualification grade.

Before your students can use Apply, you need to give them a 'buzzword'. Find out more about how to use Apply to manage your students' applications.

Cost of applying

If a student applies to more than one course, university or college they need to pay £17 GBP when they apply. If they only apply to one course at one university or college, they pay £7 GBP.

If they are making their application through your school, college or other centre, you can choose whether they pay you and you then pay us, or students can pay us directly using a credit or debit card. If you choose that they pay you, we will send you an invoice.

We accept UK and international Visa, Delta and MasterCard credit or debit cards. We can only accept UK issued Maestro, Solo and Visa Electron debit cards. At the moment we do not accept American Express or JCB cards.