Universities and colleges can make different offers to your son or daughter

Offers from universities and colleges can be conditional or unconditional. Conditional offers require the applicant to obtain certain grades or points; unconditional offers mean that the applicant has satisfied the entry requirements for the course.

Applicants can accept one offer as a 'firm' acceptance and the other as an 'insurance' acceptance. The firm acceptance should be the place that your son or daughter wants to go to; the insurance acceptance is a second choice in case they do not meet the requirements for their first choice. If they are made unconditional offers, they can accept only one, but an unconditional offer can act as a perfect insurance choice if the firm choice is conditional.female student using pc

Tip: Your son or daughter should not accept an offer if they do not want to go there - it can be tricky trying to decline an offer once it has been accepted.

Your son or daughter must remember that they cannot choose between their firm and insurance offers once they receive their results. If they meet the conditions for their firm choice, their insurance choice is no longer applicable and will be offered to someone else.

We do not expect a snap decision: your son or daughter will have at least four weeks to think about it. Their reply date will be displayed on Track.

Replying to an offer for a Route B course

If your son or daughter has applied to Route B art and design courses only and receives an offer, they must decide either to accept the offer or decline it and move on to the next choice. If they are unsuccessful, their application will automatically be sent to their next choice. They should reply within 14 days (21 days if they are applying from outside the European Union). Their reply date will be displayed on Track.

If they have applied to both Route A and Route B courses, they can choose to 'keep' a Route B offer, which means it will be held until all Route A decisions have been received by us. They can then reply to their offers.

What to do if they are unsuccessful

If your son or daughter is unsuccessful at one or more of their choices, it can be difficult to know what to say. Universities and colleges can decline an applicant for many reasons, one of which could be that the course is full, so it may not be personal. Your son or daughter can write to the university or college to request feedback, but be aware that they are not obliged to tell us, or your son or daughter, why the application was unsuccessful.

More information about different decisions is available in the student section.