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To help support your child in the next stage of their education journey, we’ve put together a guide to explain the university application timeline.
Step 1 – Register with UCAS
The only way to apply for a university place is via UCAS, so your child will need to register on the UCAS Hub and complete the registration questions. Once registered they’ll need to head to the ‘Your application’ section in the UCAS Hub dashboard and press ‘Start’ to begin the application process.
It’s worth starting this early as possible, as you can save your progress as you go and come back to sections by logging back into your account, so you don’t need to complete everything in one go.
TOP TIP: Make sure the email address your child registers with is one they check regularly so they don’t miss any updates or communication from UCAS and their chosen university. It’s also worth choosing an email address that is appropriate and doesn’t contain any unnecessary nicknames or humorous terms.
Step 2 – Profile information
Within this section, they must complete all questions to submit the application. A few things you’ll need to answer in this section include residency status and details about how they plan to fund their studies.
They’ll also need to give details on their ethnic origin and occupational background although this is for monitoring purposes and will only be shared with universities and colleges after they have secured a place and will not influence any decision regarding the application.
It’s also worth noting that your child can give you or a nominated adviser access to their account. This means that you can speak to UCAS on their behalf to discuss their application.
TOP TIP: When completing the application – make sure your child enters their first name and middle name(s) exactly as they’re stated on official documents, such as passport, birth certificate, or driving licence.
Step 3 – Education history
In this section they must enter all qualifications from secondary education onwards. A few things to note in this section that they’ll need to add:
- Any results they’re still waiting on as this helps their chosen university to understand if they meet the entry requirements or they may still make an offer even if they don’t quite meet the exact grades.
- Any resits they’ve taken and when they took place.
- Any vocational qualifications such as BTECS
Step 4 – Employment history
This section needs to detail out any full-time or part-time roles your child has held. They can list out up to five and should include company names, addresses, job descriptions, and start/finish dates. It’s worth noting this is only for paid work – any unpaid or voluntary roles should be written about in the personal statement. If your child hasn’t had any paid work experience just leave the section blank and mark as complete.
Step 5 – Select course choices
When choosing courses they can pick up to five (they don’t need to be selected at the same time). There’s no preference order and the universities/colleges won’t see where else they’ve applied to until after offers are issued.
If your child is applying for medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine or veterinary science, the process is slightly different in that you can only apply to a maximum of four courses in any one of these subjects. The deadline for these subjects is 15 October 2025. Other subjects can be added at a later date but the maximum of five choices still applies.
If your child is applying to either the University of Oxford or the University of Cambridge, the deadline for these is usually mid-October. However, typically you can only apply to one or the other – there are some exceptions though and it’s worth reading up on these on the university’s website.
Step 6 – Personal statement
For this section you may want to encourage your child to get started as early as possible in the process so they can reflect on it and come back to it a few times before submission. It’s a critical part of the application as it’s the opportunity to get across why they want to study at that particular university and the skills and experiences they have that make them suited to it. There is a minimum 1000 character count but you can use up to 4000 characters (around 150-750 words).
TOP TIP: Get them to write the draft using something like Microsoft Word so it’s easy to do a character count and see how they’re tracking. Then they can reread and edit there before pasting into their application and marking it as complete.
Step 7 – Submitting the application
Once all the sections are completed there is a chance to review the full application and make any edits. When happy, your child needs to read and agree to the declaration – which means UCAS can then process the application and send it to the chosen universities/colleges.
Step 8 – Getting a reference added
The reference needs to be a written recommendation from a teacher, adviser or professional who knows your child academically. This is a mandatory part of the application process, and the application cannot be submitted in full until the referee has completed their section.
Ideally the referee should be someone who has been involved in their education and can share predicted grades and any supporting information that’s relevant to the courses they’re applying for.
Once this stage is completed the last step is to pay the entry fee
Step 9 – Receiving offers
Once the application has been submitted to the chosen universities it is then down to the universities to review and respond. Each university will review and make decisions at different times, so there is no indication of when you should hear back (so don’t panic even if their friends have heard). However, the final deadline for a response is:
- May – if the application is sent by the end of January.
- July – if the application is sent by the end of June.
To check the status of any offers your child will need to login to their account on the UCAS Hub. Once logged in, head to the “Your Application” section, to see the status of the offers. Offers can be:
- Conditional: You need to meet certain grade requirements.
- Unconditional: Your place is guaranteed regardless of your grades.
If a university your child has applied to doesn’t make a decision by the appropriate deadline, that choice will be automatically made unsuccessful.
Step 10 – Making and confirming choices
Once all of the offers are in, they’ll need to select two. This will consist of a Firm Choice – this is the top choice—the university they most want to attend. If it’s offered on a conditional basis and they meet the conditions, this is where they’ll go. If it’s an unconditional offer they are securing their place at that university and committing to go.
Then they need to select an Insurance Choice. This is the backup option and typically tends to be something with lower entry requirements. This is the university they’ll attend if they don’t meet the conditions of the Firm Choice but meet those of the insurance choice.
A few things to note from the UCAS website:
- You can only accept one firm choice and one insurance choice (if you choose to have one).
- You can only choose an insurance option if your firm choice is conditional.
- You must decline all other offers and you must make decisions by the deadline provided by UCAS, which will be around the time when you receive your last offer.
- Missing the deadline could result in losing all offers. Your child can check their application to see their personal deadline.
Step 11 – Results Day
When results day lands, they’ll need to confirm their place. If they meet the conditions of their firm choice, UCAS will automatically confirm the place with the university. If they don’t meet their firm choice offer but meet the insurance offer, UCAS will confirm the insurance place.
If they don’t meet any of the conditions on any offers they’ll need to go through Clearing to find out which courses are available. In the event that they exceed the firm choice conditions, they can explore “trading up” to a different course or university without losing their current place through an Adjustment.
However, if they don’t have any offers or decide they don’t want to accept any of the offers, they can decline them all and add more courses using Extra. This is another chance to apply for a place between 26 February and 4 July 2025 if they used all five places in their original application.
TOP TIP: Stay organised by adding key dates and deadlines to your calendar to remind you of when things need to happen by – particularly with replying to offers.