Global Career Counsellor 2 A Green Belt Certification Module: 5.2 Section 3 Deep Dive into the Procedure to Apply in UK Universities Presented by: (ijnivariety ). Discover & be discoveredDEEP DIVE INTO THE PROCEDURE TO APPLY IN U.K. UNIVERSITIES Like US, UK also has a very specific procedure when it comes to applications. In UK, it called as the UCAS or Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. Let us understand it a bit more deeply. Introduction UCAS The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is a UK-based organisation whose main role is to operate the application process for British universities. UCAS provides information, ad- vice, and admissions services to inspire and facilitate educational progression. It operates as an independent charity, funded by fees charged to applicants and to universities, plus advertising income. Now, the services provided by UCAS include several online application portals, a number of search tools, and free information and advice directed at various types of audiences like stu- dents considering higher education, students with pending applications to higher education in- stitutes, parents and legal guardians of applicants, school and Further Education college staff in- volved in helping students apply, and providers of higher education (universities and HE colleg- es). So it essentially covers all people associated with a child’s education. While UCAS is best known for its undergraduate application service (the main UCAS scheme), it also operates a number of other admissions services: You can take a look to get a general idea: + Conservatoires UK Admissions Service (CUKAS) — for performing arts at a UK conservatoire + UCAS Teacher Training (UTT) — for postgraduate teacher training schemes + UK Postgraduate Application and Statistical Service (UKPASS) — for some postgraduate courses + UCAS Progress — for post-16 education and training UCAS processes undergraduate applications to full-time courses at UK universities and colleges and some other European countries, and provides a central source of information and advice on higher education. Since the vast majority of UK universities and higher education colleges use the UCAS service, all students planning to study for an undergraduate degree in the UK must apply through UCAS — including home students (generally British and EU students) and international students (non-EU). Global Career Counsellor Ce enyaApplication In order to apply to university, students must submit a single application via UCAS' online Ap- ply service. Here is a rough outline of the process flow: The application itself requires the student to register to the service, fill out personal details, write a personal statement and choose up to five courses to apply to, in no order of prefer- ence. They must then pay an application fee and obtain a reference before submitting their ap- plication online by the appropriate deadline. The application is then forwarded by UCAS to the universities and colleges that the students have applied to, who then decide whether to make students an offer of a place. Universities give students either an unconditional offer, where the student will receive a place regardless, or a conditional offer, where the student will receive a place subject to their grades being met. This process flow applies to all categories of applicants - regardless of whether qualifying as a home student or as an international student. An important point to note is that all five choices of universities are confidential during the application process so universities and colleges con- sidering an application cannot see any of the candidate's other choices. Applications must be completed by the mid-January of the year that the student wishes to start university. Eligibil For applications to universities in the UK, entry requirements for individual courses can either be based on grades of qualifications (e.g. AAA at GCE A-Level, a score of 43/45 in the IB Inter- national Baccalaureate Diploma) or in UCAS points (e.g. 300 UCAS points from 3 A-Levels or an IB score equal to 676 UCAS points). To convert individual scores or grades of specific qualifica- tions into UCAS points, UCAS has created tariff tables indicating indexes and ratios of UCAS points and results of qualifications. Personal details Once logged into "Apply", applicants complete a number of personal details ~ including their current qualifications, employment and criminal history, national identity, ethnic origin and student finance arrangements. Applicants also have the option to declare if they have any indi- vidual needs ~ such as any disabilities etc. Coll) rl Meie tm eel Lele n Belt CertificationPersonal statements The personal statement is an integral part of the application. It gives candidates a chance to write about their achievements, their interest in the subject they are applying for, as well as their suitability, interest, and commitment to higher education. Personal statements can contain a maximum of 4,000 characters (including spaces) or 47 lines - whichever comes first. A research study conducted by UCAS with over 300,000 personal statements of students revealed that the personal statement (among the student's grades) is the most important part within the applica- tion process. This is also what is known as the SOP or Statement of Purpose. Students must spend a considerable amount of time on the SOP. Application fees and references The final part of the process involves paying an application fee and obtaining a written reference. The process varies depending on whether a student is applying through + a school, college or « UCAS centre, or « Asan individual For the former, applications are sent to the school, college, or centre, who may ask applicants to pay their fee to them (which they then pass to UCAS) or pay UCAS directly, before they provide a reference and submit the form on the student's behalf. If applications are sent to the school, col- lege or centre, then they will attach a reference to send to UCAS. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that their school, college or centre submits the application before the appropriate deadline for their courses. So you will have to make sure that your students nag you about their applications! + Individual applicants should request their reference — from a teacher, adviser, or professional who knows them — before paying the fee and submitting the form themselves. + For most current applications, the cost per student is £12 to apply for a single university/ course, or £23 for two or more universities/courses. Ceeteeasraeeiey eaDeadlines Depending on the subject and on the university that they are applying for, candidates must sub- mit their application by the relevant submission deadline to ensure their application is given equal consideration by the higher education providers they are applying to. There are some set deadlines for specific courses. Take a look: + 15 October deadline: Those applying for medicine, dentistry and veterinary science courses and anyone applying to the universities of Oxford and Cambridge must submit their UCAS ap- plications by 15 October — in the year before the student wishes to start their studies. + 15 January deadline: The majority of applications must be submitted by 15 January (in the calendar year that the student wishes to begin their studies). + 24March deadline: Some art and design courses have a later application deadline ~ 24 March —to give them time to complete their portfolios. An important point to note: it is possible for students to submit applications up until 30 June each year; but a late submission may not be given the same consideration as those submitted before the deadline. Applications received after 30 June are placed directly into Clearing. Once students complete the applications through UCAS, all the universities receive their applica- tions from UCAS. A university can only see the application that a student has made to that uni- versity and not the other universities that the student has applied to. On receiving the application each university will send them an acknowledgement mail stating that they have received their application and it is under review. Based on the information provid- ed in the UCAS application, Universities would take at least 4- 6 weeks to make a decision on a student’ application. Some universities might also ask students to come attend interviews, which could be online through Skype or through telephone, or even be present to meet their faculty in a city in their country ( Delhi mostly). Within 4-6 weeks, the universities either- * make an unconditional offer —this is possible for students who have already completed their class 12 and have submitted their marks through UCAS. * make a conditional offer — all universities would give students a conditional offer. Global Career Counsellor SdThe conditions could be meeting a certain overall percentage in class 12 + obtaining a specific percentage in a pre requisite subject * obtaining evidence of English language proficiency (IELTS) * presenting a portfolio for design/architecture related programs Once students send the conditions specified in their offer to the university, the status of their offer will change to unconditional. * reject the student: If a university is not satisfied with the information that a student has pro- vided or if they do not meet the entry criteria for admission. Each time a university makes a decision, the students are informed directly through mails and the same is updated on the UCAS. Students can find the status of their application through the Track facility provided on the UCAS website. It is actually a pretty neat and easy to use system. Students must adhere to their appropriate deadline for their course. While UCAS advises univer- sities and colleges to send their decisions by the end of March, the universities have the respon- sibility of responding to applicants and may operate in their own timescale. Many universities (like the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge) require that applicants come to an interview before offers are received; or they may be asked to submit an additional piece of work before receiving an offer. Offers are made through UCAS' Track service by universities and are either unconditional or con- ditional, where the latter means that the student will receive a place dependent on exam perfor- mance. Applicants also find out if they have been accepted or rejected through UCAS Track. Once an applicant has received a reply from their choices, they must reply to their university be- fore the deadline in May/June as the case may be. Applicants are normally allowed to choose between two offers through UCAS. * one as their firm choice * The other as their insurance choice Cel (oof er eee gAfirm choice means that, if the student receives the required grades and meets the conditions of the university chosen as firm choice, then the student will receive an unconditional offer. An insurance choice means that, if the student does not meet the requirements of the firm choice university and is rejected due to the grades, then the student will get into the insurance choice university, if he has met the terms and conditions of the insurance choice university. If the student does not receive an offer from any of the five universities that he has applied to? Then he has the facility of applying to some other university that would accept him for admis- sion through Extra. So, if an applicant uses all of their five choices, and does not receive any offers, or they decide to decline the offers they receive, they can apply for additional courses using UCAS’ Extra service. This allows them to keep applying, one course at a time, until they receive an offer they're happy with. Extra runs between mid-February and the end of June. If they don’t get an offer during this time, they have the option to enter into Clearing when it openss in July. Before we get into understanding the concept of Clearing, let us first see what the possibilities are for students after receiving their class 12 marks: When students obtain their class 12 scores: There are three possibilities/situations that students may face - 1. They get the grades required for Firm choice, and confirm that they will be going there and decline the Insurance choice. Upon meeting the requirements of Firm choice, they cannot decline it and have to go ahead with it. 2. They don’t not get the grades for the Firm choice, but meet requirements of the Insurance choice, and confirm it. In this scenario, the student declines the Firm choice university. OR if a student has fallen short of a few marks and has not met the conditions then he can write to the university to know if that university would consider his case. 3, Students don't get the grades for either choice, and decide to go through Clearing in Au- gust. This is when all the remaining places are advertised by the universities. Confirmation and clearing When applicants receive their examination results, they will know if they have met the condi- tions of their firm and insurance choices. Universities give out unconditional offers and rejec- tions when applicants receive their examination results. Colle) FI Recletm eles eedThose that do have their offers confirmed are invited to accept a place on the course they ap- plied to, which is called "confirmation". Many universities and colleges still accept students that narrowly miss their offer conditions. Those that don’t meet their "firm" and "insurance" offer conditions are eligible to use UCAS’ Clearing service - which enables unplaced students to apply for courses with vacancies directly to the university. They do so by searching for an available course, using the UCAS search tool, and contacting each university or college con- cerned for a place. Although clearing is most commonly used following results days in August, it opens at the start of July each year and closes in late September. So this is an important point to remem- ber. Adjustment If applicants exceed the conditions of their firm offer, they have the option to search for a place at another university or college while retaining their original offer. This is known as “adjustment”, a service which is available between 14 and 31 August. So in essence, students have a really wide scope of application. It is beautiful how well these things are thought through. As part of the application, students should have all the relevant documents ready with them before they begin applying. Which are: * AValid passport: Make sure that the passport is renewed well on time if it happens to be expiring close to the Visa application time. + IELTS scores: details of the IELTS score are required to be entered in the UCAS applica tion. The overall scores as well as the score obtained in each of the module like (Listening, reading, Speaking and Writing) should be mentioned separately in the application form. In case the students have not taken the IELTS, they can still go ahead and apply to the univer- sities and submit the IELTS test scores later. In such a case the student will get a condition- al offer specifying the grades required to meet in class 12 as well as the IELTS test score required for admission. + Class 10 mark sheet: The document is not uploaded, but marks against each subject have to be entered in the UCAS. All documents are always attested and later sent to each individual university. Ce) (oF er Tem eel al fee reen Belt Certification+ Class 12 subjects: Only the subjects taken at year 12 have to be entered for this part, the result is marked as pending for the month and year when students get their result. Ex Apr 2016” + SOP: The Statement of Purpose: this is the most important part of the application. It gives students an opportunity to let the universities know more about them as a person. They can mention why they wish to pursue the course, what has inspired them to select the course. What are they aiming to gain by studying that course at the UK universities and what is their future career plan related to the subject that they have opted for. This helps the university understand whether students have made the right choice and wheth- er their candidature suits the program. Students can speak about the extra-curricular ac- tivities as well. THE SOP should be generic and should apply to all the Universities that they are applying to. This means that the students should not mention any university name in the SOP. Additionally The SOP should not be more than 4000 characters. « LOR:, In this section, students just have to enter their referee's / teacher’s complete de- tails like her full name, designation, contact number, email id and the complete school ad- dress. Once these details are entered, they can send the request to their teacher from the UCAS Ap- plication form/ and she will receive an email with a link requesting her to upload the stu- dent's predicted scores and a letter of reference. On completing the application form, it is al- ways advisable to recheck the details that students have filled in before making a payment and submitting the application form. Just in case, students forget to give the complete details or have entered the wrong details in any part of their form, they can contact UCAS or send the details to the universities and to UCAS explaining that they have made a mistake in their application which requires to be cor- rected. Easy as a pie! It also advisable that they send the correct details through email also. Note: Even if not mentioned, it is advisable to include at least two letters of recommendation in applications as they increase the chances of getting admissions. Every part of a student's application, builds an image of their personality in the minds of the admissions committee. The recommendation letters provide a third person’s perspective on the kind of person they are. What a recommendation letter writes about a student should add or supplement what he/she claims to be through their essays/SOP and work experience details. It certainly would create doubts about the student as a person if the image that the recommendation letter creates completely inverts the image that they have been trying to create through their essays/SOPs and work experience details. Colle) FI Recletm eles eedThe one simple way to make recommendation letters contribute to the admission process is to keep the application straight and honest. Present the facts as they actually are - be truthful about every claim that is made in every aspect of the application. Statement of Purpose A personal statement should include a student's reasons for choosing a particular course, the suitability of their education and experience for the chosen course, their personal interests and career goals. Previous academic background and scores in the standardised tests (GRE / SAT) show what you are capable of delivering. The admissions committee is also interested in knowing motivations of a student at this point in time. Why do they want to pursue the course they are applying for? How relevant is the course to their long term goals etc. Since they will not go through an interview, the admissions committee gets to know about a stu- dent through their SOP. SOP is very important. So students must spend time to get it right. So now the question is, how can they get it right? - By being honest about themselves and pro- jecting their true self in the SOP. You can ask the students to do the following exercise before writing a SOP: + Write down all your past accomplishments - academic, extra-curricular, social contribu- tions, sports - whatever you've done well in life. Also write down all the things that you, feel or care for strongly. + What is it that you want to do in life? What is the career you want to choose for yourself in the future and why? + Write down the area that you want to study further in. How will taking up this course of study help you achieve your long term career goals that you described above? + Now, write down why should you have the life that you want? Why should you get all the things you listed above? What qualifies you to have all the success you desire? There's another thing that you should ask the students to do - use the internet or the univer- sity prospectus to study about the university they are applying to and the course they want to study. But this applies only in the case where the student is applying to only one university. In that case, they MUST mention in their SOP as to why they chose the university they are ap- plying to. Once a student has got the contents of the SOP in place, the next step is to write it in the form of an essay. Colle) FI Recletm eles eedStudents should make sure their SOP is grammatically correct, flows perfectly from one idea to another and does not exceed the prescribed word limit. The SOP should be enthusiastic, friendly and confident in tone. If writing is not a student's strength, he/she should not hesi- tate to take the help of a friend or colleague who can write well. Key takeaways: + Like the US application procedure, UK also has a very specific procedure when it comes to applications. In UK, it called as the UCAS or Universities and Colleges Admissions Service. UCAS processes undergraduate applications to full-time courses at UK universities and col- leges and some other European countries, and provides a central source of information and advice on higher education + The application itself requires the student to register to the service, fill out personal de- tails, write a personal statement and choose up to five courses to apply to, in no order of preference. They must then pay an application fee and obtain a reference before sub- mitting their application online by the appropriate deadline + Personal details, Personal statements, Application fees and references are some important features of the UCAS that should be known by every counsellor + Once students complete the applications through UCAS, all the universities receive their applications from UCAS. Based on the information provided in the UCAS application, Uni- versities would take at least 4- 6 weeks to make a decision on a student’ application * Within 4-6 weeks, the universities either make an unconditional offer, make a conditional offer or reject the student + As part of the application, students should have all the relevant documents ready with them before they begin applying. Which are: a Valid passport, IELTS scores, Class 10 mark sheet, Class 12 subjects, Statement of Purpose or SOP and Letter of recommendation or LOR End of the Section Colle) FI Recletm eles eed