• Adviser guide
• Preparing your students
• Important dates
• Post-16 data collection
• Curriculum and qualifications
• Benefits and opportunities
• Apply
• After applying
  • What we do with the applications
  • Offers
  • Replying to offers
  • Making changes
  • Track
  • Art and design
  • Extra
  • Clearing
  • Applicant Status Reports
• Non-UK advisers
• Open days
• Conventions and exhibitions
• Conferences
• News

How your students reply to their offers

Once we have received all decisions about an application, we send the applicant a letter explaining how to reply to their offers. Applicants give their replies to us via Track and we let the universities and colleges know if their offer has been accepted.

The applicant's deadline to reply will be printed on the letter and displayed on Track: there is no single date for all applicants; it depends on the applicant's circumstances, such as when the last decision was made.

However, you can view a list of main deadlines and reply dates here.

They must reply to each offer in one of the following ways.

• Firm acceptance (F)

• Insurance acceptance (I)

• Decline (D)

Firm acceptance

If an applicant firmly accepts an offer, it means that this is their preferred choice out of all the offers they have received. As this is their first choice, they can only make this reply once.

If they accept an unconditional offer (UF), they are agreeing that they will attend the course at that university or college and must decline all other offers. We will send them a letter which will have instructions about how to contact the university or college to confirm their place.

If they accept a conditional offer (CF), they are agreeing that they will attend the course at that university or college if they meet the conditions of the offer. They can accept another offer as an insurance choice.

Insurance acceptance

An applicant can accept an offer as an insurance choice if their firm choice is conditional. Their insurance choice can be conditional (CI) or unconditional (UI) and acts as a back-up to their firm choice, so if they do not meet the conditions for their firm choice but meet the conditions for their insurance choice, they are committed to that course.

They do not have to make an insurance choice. We recommend that they only make an insurance choice if they are certain that they would be happy to take up the offer, in the event that they are not accepted by their firm choice.

Decline

Once they have decided which offer to accept firmly, and which (if any) to accept as an insurance, an applicant must decline all other offers. If they do not want to accept any of the offers, they may decline them. They will then become eligible for Extra or Clearing, depending upon their circumstances.

How and when to reply to offers

Applicants use Track to reply to offers. Their reply date will be displayed on Track and printed on the letter we send to them. If they do not reply by the date given, their offers will be declined. The reply date is their individual reply date so it may be different to other people's. This is because it is based on when they received the last decision from their universities and colleges.

If your students live in the UK or European Union (EU), the dates are:

If your students' postal addresses are outside the EU, they will have a different date to reply by.

Replying to Route B art and design courses

There are some important differences to remember when replying to Route B courses.

• If an applicant receives an offer for a Route B course, their reply date will usually be 14 days after the offer has been made (or 21 days if they live outside the EU). Their reply date will be displayed on Track. If they do not reply by the deadline, they will lose the offer.

• If they accept a Route B offer, either as a firm choice or an insurance choice, remember that we will cancel any other Route B choices they have made.

As with other courses, they must reply to a Route B offer in one of the following ways.

• Firm acceptance (F)

• Insurance acceptance (I)

• Decline (D)

If they have applied to choices through Route A and Route B and are still awaiting one or more Route A decisions, they will be able to reply initially to a Route B offer with a Keep (K). This means that they do not have to accept or decline the Route B offer until they have received decisions from their Route A choices. Keeping a Route B offer will cancel any subsequent Route B choices. Once all decisions have been received they will have to make their final replies by the deadline stated on Track.

Replying to both Route A and Route B courses

If an applicant has applied for choices in both Route A and Route B, they can accept two offers, but they can only accept one offer in Route B.

If they firmly accept an unconditional offer for either a Route A or Route B course, they cannot accept any other offer.

Examples of accepting offers:

Withdrawing an application

If one of your students decides to withdraw completely from the UCAS scheme, please make sure that they tell us as soon as possible and no later than 20 September 2008 so that the course(s) can be offered to someone else. We will let their chosen universities and colleges know that they have withdrawn.