Help them to get it right the first time

Applying for higher education courses has never been easier. All the information needed is available on this website, along with Apply, the online application system.

All schools and colleges offer the opportunity to apply using a personal computer, if internet access is not available at home. There are online centres that also offer computer access to students.

The standard application fee is £15 for a maximum of five choices and £5 for a single choice.

Making choices

  • A maximum of five choices is available. Some students make just one choice at a local university; others go for two different courses; the majority of students pick the same subject at five different places.
  • Tip: making the right choices matters - students should only apply to places they want to go to. If they have not used all their choices, they may be able to add another later, as long as they have not accepted an offer elsewhere.
  • With over 50,000 courses in the UCAS system, and each with a unique code, it is very important that your son or daughter puts time aside to double-check things like UCAS course and institution codes. Apply makes this easy because if they click on the course title, it will input the codes for them.
  • The distance between the chosen university and your family home will affect you as well as your son or daughter.

Personal statement

male student using laptopThis is a crucial part of the application: many institutions do not hold interviews and tutors rely on the information given in the personal statement when making their decision. It is your son's or daughter's chance to tell the universities and colleges why they are applying, why they have chosen the course and why the institution should want them as a student.

The personal statement is the only opportunity to personalise the application. It is very important that your son or daughter takes time to prepare this - your wider experience in form-filling could be invaluable to them.

You may find it useful to read the guidance notes about the UCAS Similarity Detection Service, which are published in the students' section this site and explain how we detect plagiarism in personal statements.

Sending the application

When students applying through their school or college have completed the application, their referee will write a reference and send the application to us.

The payment method will depend on the school's or college's policy. They may ask students to pay us by credit or debit card before submitting the application. Alternatively, they may ask that payment for the application be given to the school or college and we will then invoice them.

If your son or daughter is applying as an individual applicant, they should ask their referee to send them a copy of the reference, which they paste onto their application. They can then pay for their application using a credit/debit card and send their application to us.