Changes to undergraduate references for 2024 entry

References of up to 4,000 characters, (including spaces, headings, and line breaks) should be factual, easy to digest, specific and relevant, and comprise the following three sections:    

Section 1: Enter a general statement about your school, college/centre.

Information could include:

• context of your school, college, or centre e.g. performance, intake demographics, progression rates to higher education etc.   
• your portfolio of qualification provision and any restrictions on options students may have   
• information about your school, college or centre which may affect performance, such as significant staff changes, or damage to buildings  
• any policies or processes used for predicting grades (e.g. internal assessments). This is an opportunity to articulate any policy about not predicting grades for qualifications where the school or college feels the assessment method or qualification structure is not suited to predictions  

Section 2: If applicable, enter any information about extenuating circumstances which may have impacted the applicant's education and achievement.

Include relevant information that contextualises the educational journey, for example:    

• individual circumstances – e.g. mature student, disability, serious, acute, or chronic illness, bereavement, significant adverse personal circumstances (with applicant consent) 
• context as to why there is a disparity between an individual’s grades achieved throughout the school or college (e.g. at GCSE/ Scottish national 4/5 equivalent and predicted grades, where applicable) 
• factors which have limited the individual’s choice of subjects or load of study at UK Level 3 or equivalent (factors which have affected the whole centre rather than the individual should be included in section 1)  
• support the university or college should consider putting in place to ensure the applicant can thrive on their course (with applicant’s consent) – e.g. highlight the measures the school, college or centre put in place to ensure the student’s inclusion/experience 

You must be clear whether any of the circumstances outlined in section 2 have already been considered by the student’s examination boards or awarding organisations for the qualifications taken. 

Section 3: Outline any other supportive information specific to the applicant and relevant to the course(s) applied for that you think universities/colleges should be aware of. 

It is not necessary to craft the perfect paragraph here; providing short, clear, factual statements helps universities and colleges digest the information. You can provide a supporting statement for your students and showcase any additional information for high performing students. 

Useful information could include: 

• evidence of suitability for the course(s) applied for which may include performance and academic ability in relevant UK Level 3 or equivalent qualifications, relevant work experience, cases where an applicant is the strongest performer in their cohort or extracurricular achievements 
• any barriers the applicant has faced in accessing work experience opportunities only where relevant to the course applied to 

Ticking ‘no information to enter’ for this section in the adviser portal will highlight to universities and colleges that no information has been supplied under these headings. 

Predicted grades must be provided where relevant and are captured separately outside of these three reference sections. Students who are waiting for examination results or yet to take examinations, should enter ‘pending’ against those qualification(s) (including resits) when completing the education section of the UCAS application. Those pending qualifications will be shown in the adviser portal to record your predicted grades.  

• Applicants who apply independently, must ask for a reference from someone who isn’t a family member, friend, partner, or ex-partner, and must not write it themselves. We ask applicants to make sure they have the agreement of their chosen referee before entering their details into their application.  
• If you’ve been asked to be a referee for an independent applicant you’ll receive an email from us with a password, which will allow you to input and submit your reference. The applicant cannot submit their application to UCAS until a reference is attached.  
• What you will include in the reference will depend on how you know the applicant, and how familiar you are with their plans and experience. It’s a good idea to speak to them about their application before you write the reference.   

References of up to 4,000 characters (including spaces, headings and line breaks) or 47 lines of text, whichever comes first, comprising the following sections: 

Section 1: Provide an overview of your relationship with the applicant (mandatory). 

Section 2: If applicable, enter any information about extenuating circumstances which may have impacted the applicant's education and achievement.  

This could include:   

• individual circumstances – e.g., mature student, disability, serious, acute, or chronic illness, bereavement, significant adverse personal circumstances (with applicant consent) 
• context as to why there is a disparity between an individual’s grades achieved throughout the school or college (e.g. at GCSE/ Scottish national 4/5 equivalent and predicted grades, where applicable) 
• factors which have limited the individual’s choice of subjects or load of study at school or college  
• support the university or college should consider putting in place to ensure the applicant can thrive on their course (with applicant’s consent) 

You must be clear whether any of the circumstances outlined in section 2 have already been considered by the student’s examination boards or awarding organisations for the qualifications taken. 

Section 3: Outline any other supportive information specific to the applicant and relevant to the course(s) applied for that you think universities/colleges should be aware of  

It is not necessary to craft the perfect paragraph here; providing short, clear, factual statements helps universities and colleges digest the information. 

Applicants are encouraged to share details of their application with you so you can, where appropriate, comment on their chosen subject.   

Useful information could include: 

• evidence of suitability for the course(s) applied for which may include performance and academic ability in relevant UK level 3 or equivalent qualifications, relevant work experience, cases where an applicant is the strongest performer in their cohort or extracurricular achievements 
• any barriers the applicant has faced in accessing work experience opportunities only where relevant to the course applied to 

Ticking ‘no information to enter’ for this section will highlight to universities and colleges that no information has been supplied under these headings. 

There is no specific character count for each section. The overall character limit of up to 4,000 spreads across the three sections (including spaces, line breaks and new section headings) to enable referees to use their professional judgement on what information is most appropriate to include, as has always been the case.

The character limit is not a target and so length of reference will vary depending on individual circumstances. We anticipate most references will not need to use all 4,000 characters; short, focused sentences will help points land better with universities and colleges There is a character count inbuilt within the Adviser Portal and headings are shown to providers on the reference.

Character counts may differ if your input has been pasted from another electronic source and/or you have entered non-English characters and/or symbols such as £, €, among others.

If the student is an independent applicant linking to the school for a reference only, advisers supply the reference using the same sectioned format as the rest of the cohort of students.  

Enter information within the three sections on what you know about that student as you would have done in previous years. Once the reference is approved in the adviser portal the student is responsible for submitting the application.  

Where students went to school, where they've taken exams, and where they're currently studying, can be identified in the Education section in the UCAS application by the student.  

If the student faced particular extenuating circumstances during their GCSEs relating to the centre, this should be included in section 2.

UCAS will provide a slide deck to share relevant information to staff and parents.  

In addition, please do encourage parents to sign up to UCAS newsletters where will keep them up-to-date and informed of the UCAS process, including references.

The changes in this guidance have been made with the express purpose of ensuring the additional work of individual requests and submissions is not needed. We will be sharing the updated guidance with universities and colleges to ensure they have sight of the guidance you have. 

UCAS are aware of this too – we will be monitoring adoption and will conduct a survey on the value and experience from both the provider and adviser customer groups after the equal consideration deadline.  

The refocus on section 3 does allow advisers to give more supportive statements on performance and potential on related subjects, so more of a transition than a radical overhaul. But the emphasis should be on short, focused statements rather than a replication of the previous approach.   

You only need to provide an overview of the centre the applicant is currently studying. Where students went to school and where they have taken exams and where they are currently studying, can be identified in the Education section within the UCAS application by the student. If the student faced particular extenuating circumstances, that you are able to comment on, at a previous centre, this could be included in section 2.

If the student is linking to the school, advisers supply the reference using the same sectioned format as the rest of the cohort of students. Enter information within the three sections on what you know about that student as you would have done in previous years.

You can use section 1 in a way that best fits the needs of your centre. You can use the reference template (under centre management) to create a standard statement and add it at the point of reference on the application management area for all applicants. If you require adjusted statements for section 1, for example you may a multi-site centre with differing qualification provision, then there is the option to edit the template once added in application management or to copy and paste a different statement into the application

The reference has been streamlined into sections to ensure information that is important to admissions teams is easy to find, a URL is not hyperlinked with the UCAS systems and requires admissions teams to look up information outside of the system they are using. We would advise against the use of a URL and include all information relevant to the school/college/centre within section 1.

If you are a UCAS registered centre, agents/counsellors are reminded this is an academic reference linked to predicted grades, requiring someone who knows the academic achievements of the applicant to write it. Please continue to work with schools/colleges to obtain references as appropriate.

The ‘More about You’ section of the application form empowers applicants themselves to share key information such as this: they can share if they have a disability (including a long-term illnesses, learning differences and those with mental health conditions), and students (with a UK address) can also share if they may have some specific individual circumstances (e.g caring responsibilities). Section two of the reference could include anything that has impacted the applicant's education and bring context to their academic journey so this information should be referenced if you can comment on the specific impact of those circumstances.

We’ve worked with expert organisations to bring together practical tips and useful resources for supporting students with individual needs.

UCAS and universities and colleges understand that references are relevant at the point of submission to UCAS and if there are no extenuating circumstances at the time of submission, please tick the ‘no information to enter’ box. However, should a change of circumstance occur post submission, please inform each of the choices (as current guidance).

The section approach has been designed to help Universities and colleges find the information they need, and to reaffirm which categories of information are most relevant. While this should minimise the need for additional information to be requested/shared outside of the UCAS application, there are some circumstances where we anticipate that this will still happen – for example, when the circumstances occur post submission, or for cases where there are particularly complex or sensitive personal circumstances which you and/or the applicant feel should be shared only with a very limited group of people.

We will continue to review adoption on the 2024 entry references after the equal consideration deadline (31 January 2024), to understand if they provided the value required, and the scope of potential refinements for 2025 entry onwards.

It is likely many students will not have extenuating circumstances and, therefore, please confirm there is no information by ticking the box. As has always been the case, information about personal circumstances is only ever used to help Universities and Colleges to better understand individuals’ contexts and support needs. Applicants will not be disadvantaged if there are no personal circumstances to share.

Under the previous model, referees were successfully able to balance information about their school/college, the student’s suitability for the course and any adverse circumstances. There is no reason to expect that this will no longer be the case; the refocus to short, concise, digestible information about the student should help make this balance easier than before. Remember, the overall character count is a limit not a target.

Ultimately the student’s permission is critical here, but we would encourage a culture of positive disclosure: such information will never be used negatively by universities and colleges but could enable them to connect the student to their own support services to help their transition into higher education. Depending on the nature and sensitivity of the circumstances, it may be appropriate to ask the university/college where to send such information to first, rather than sending to a general admissions office address.

We have refocused section 3 to allow advisers to showcase their outstanding students with relevant context, and have identified these in example statements (309.71 KB) supplied. Keeping this information short and to the point helps the most selective universities and colleges focus on the information that really counts.

There is no formatting possible within the reference this includes inserting bullet points or using bold, italics and underlining. The focus is on using short, concise and factual statements, which could be written in bullet point ‘style’.

The guidance for section 3 has been refocused to enable advisers to make short, concise and factual sentences to demonstrate suitability for the course(s) applied for and share relevant context to the application. It is likely that advisers will be able to identify something supportive to state about each applicant.

As with all aspects of the application process, including entry requirements, use of personal statements and contextual admissions, we would always recommend that applicants and advisers check local requirements. The information advisers provide for the reference is not changing, but the three sections will streamline and structure the content provided. Think about refining and refocusing the information that has previously been shared. Your professional judgement is still key.

If you are a UCAS registered centre, agents are reminded the reference should provide context on an applicant and will often be linked to predicted grades. It will require someone who knows the academic achievements of the applicant to input to the reference. Please work with schools/colleges to obtain information as appropriate to complete the three sections.