UCAS Apply 2008: Your reference

Your referee should know you well enough to write about you and to comment on your suitability for higher education

The reference is a vital part of your application. We cannot process your application without full details of a referee and their reference unless you have agreement from your chosen universities and colleges that a reference is not required. We will not accept references from family, other relatives or friends.

If you are currently studying, or have recently left school or college, you should ask your headteacher, principal or an appropriate teacher or tutor to provide a reference. If you are applying through a school, college or centre, you will not have access to your reference. This will be completed on your behalf.

If you are a mature student, you should ask a responsible person who knows you to provide your reference. This could be an employer, training officer, careers adviser, a teacher on a recent relevant further education course, or a senior colleague in employment or voluntary work.

Your referee must write your reference in English (or Welsh if you are applying to Welsh universities and colleges only).

Your reference

lecturer with student There is space for 4,000 characters (this includes spaces) and 47 lines of text (this includes blank lines) for your reference. When you preview or save a pasted-in reference, the system will automatically tell you how many more characters and lines are still available or if you have used too many characters. If your reference will not fit into the box, you must obtain a shorter version from your referee. You can view the layout and format of any text you have entered before or after you have saved it.

Unfortunately, you cannot use bold, italics, underlining or foreign characters (such as á, ë, õ) in the reference. If these types of formatting or foreign characters are used, they will be removed from the text when your reference is pasted onto the application and saved.

Providing your reference

The way that your reference is entered on to your application depends on whether you are applying as an individual or through a school, college or centre.

Applications through a school, college or centre

1 Check that each section of your application is correct and record them as complete. Where appropriate, make the payment for the application.

2 Send your application online to your referee.

3 Your referee will check and approve your application.

4 Your referee will write the reference.

5 Your referee will approve the reference and send it to us.

6 We will then process your application.

Applications made as an individual

You must explain to your referee what they need to do. You should print the guide to writing references page and give it to your referee so that they can prepare a reference and send it to you. You will not be able to send your application to us if you just enter the contact details for your referee.

1 Check that each section of your application is correct and record them as complete.

2 In the reference section, enter the following details for your referee.

Their name.
Their relationship to you (for example tutor, teacher, careers/guidance adviser, employer).
The name of their school, college or other organisation.
Their address.
Their telephone number, including the international dialling code.
Their fax number, if they have one, including the international dialling code.
Their email address.

You must enter your referee's telephone number or email address before you can record this section as complete. It is important that you provide as much information as possible, as we or the universities and colleges may wish to contact your referee for further information about you.

3 Enter the reference into the space provided. This can be done in two ways.

Your referee can give you the reference to enter into Apply - we recommend that he/she sends the reference to you as a Word document, so that you can copy and paste it into the reference section.
You can log in to your application whilst your referee is present and they can enter the reference directly into Apply. Please note that if you choose to give your login details to your refeee, they will have access to your entire application.

Please make sure that you save your reference at regular intervals because the application system will time-out after 35 minutes of inactivity.

4 Preview the reference and mark it as complete.

5 Click on 'send to UCAS' and follow the instructions.

6 Enter your payment details and send the application to us.

7 We will then process your application.

We will ask you to declare that all the information on your application is true, complete and accurate. We have the right to cancel applications that are found to contain any false, misleading or incomplete information. You must not write all or any part of your reference yourself. You must not edit or change the wording of your reference. When we send your application to the universities and colleges, we will tell them that you have provided the reference.

If no reference is needed

If you do not complete most of the referee details and a reference, you will not be able to send your application to us. You must provide details for a referee and a reference unless all your chosen universities and colleges have already agreed that no reference is required on your application.

If you have obtained this agreement, please enter:

'not required' in the fields for name of referee, post/occupation/ relationship, organisation name, address (first two lines only), telephone and email;

and

'I have agreed with my choice(s) of university or college that no reference is required on my application' in the reference field.

You will then be able to record the reference section as complete.