If you would like an alternative version of this booklet, in a format more suited to your needs, please telephone:

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2 If you would like an alternative version of this booklet, in a format more suited to your needs, please telephone: Or see the student Zone on the ELRAH website:

3 Deadlines and Closing Dates UCAS is the organisation which processes all applications for full time university degree courses in the UK. You must use the UCAS system to apply to university and this guide will help you to do this successfully. There are 3 UCAS application deadlines. It is your responsibility to check the deadline for each of your choices. All applications are made online at You must get your application in on time or the universities may not look at it. 15 th October 2011 Deadline for receipt at UCAS of all applications, including the tutor reference, for medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and for all courses at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge 2 nd December 2011 To give staff enough time to check your application and write your reference, it is advisable to complete your application by the 2 nd December or it may not be processed in time to meet the deadline. 15 th January 2012 Deadline for receipt at UCAS of all applications, including the tutor reference, for all courses except those with a 15 th October deadline, and Art and Design courses with a 24 th March deadline. 24 th March 2012 Deadline for receipt at UCAS of applications for Art and Design courses except those listed with a 15 th January deadline. 9 th May 2012 If you receive decisions from all your university choices by 31 March, you need to reply to any offers by this date (unless you are applying through Extra). If UCAS doesn't receive your replies by the deadline, you will lose your place. 30 th June 2012 Applications received after 30 th June are entered in Clearing.

4 The UCAS Process Decide on a maximum of 5 university course choices Register as a UCAS applicant at using the college buzzword Ask your tutor if they will write you a reference Complete your UCAS application including your personal statement Hit send to referee and pay 11 for one choice or 22 for 2-5 choices in your application Your tutor will then add your reference and send the application to UCAS to ensure this happens, you must submit your application by 2 nd December Sent to UCAS who sends copies to all universities chosen Each university or college decides and makes their offer Unconditional Offer Conditional Offer based on grades yet to be achieved Unsuccessful Reply to your offers by the deadline using UCAS track Talk to Student Services about EXTRA and CLEARING

5 Step 1: Choosing courses You can apply for up to five courses through UCAS and there is no order of preference. The tools and advice given on the website links below are a great place to start when deciding on what course to study at university. UCAS Course Search - a comprehensive online database of courses available at more than 300 universities and colleges. This covers about 95% of all full-time HE undergraduate courses in the UK. ELRAH Articulation database - If you are currently completing an HNC or an HND, you can often go straight into the second or third year of a degree. Ask your tutor or Student Services for information about the agreements your college has with some universities to allow students entry to year 2 or 3. Even if your college has an agreement with a university you still need to apply through UCAS by the deadline. It is better to apply as early as possible. More information can be found here: or by speaking to your ELRAH Adviser. Entry Profiles - these provide information about the course, specific entry requirements and career possibilities, as well as the qualities or experience admissions staff are looking for in applicants. Plan It Plus - is an excellent website giving information on Careers and Courses in Scotland. It is important to research which courses you are interested in and what qualifications you require. It may not be too late to pick up that extra qualification you need this year. When deciding on a university course, it is important to consider: The exact course that you want to study The job you would like to do after graduating The qualifications you will need from college to gain entry to different courses and universities What the various universities are like and which you prefer

6 Further Help and Advice For further help and advice, call in to Student Services and ask to see your college s Careers Adviser. If you are currently studying for an HNC or HND, check on the ELRAH database or speak to Student Services about which degrees will allow you to apply for 2 nd or 3 rd year entry. UCAS workshops There are likely to be UCAS workshops running in the college. These will provide lots of helpful information. Ask your tutor when your sessions are. Open days and taster courses It is important to visit the universities to see if you like them before you apply. You will need to consider, for example, how easy it is to get to, childcare facilities and if it feels right for you. Most universities have open days - where you can visit and look around - advertised on their websites but you can check when all the university open days are here: HE day, HE Fair or Going to University Event Most colleges will host an event where local university representatives visit the college campus to give information and answer your questions. Look out for one on your college campus and don t miss it!

7 Step 2: Applying online. Applying for only one course or applying for courses at only one university is a risky strategy and should be discussed with the Careers Adviser or Student Adviser To register and apply at UCAS Enter web address 1. Click on Apply. 2. Click on Register/Log in to use Apply If it is the first time you are using Apply, click on the red register button on the next screen. 4. Follow instructions on the next few screens. Find out your College Buzzword for 2012 entry. 5. You will be asked to choose a password and devise four personal security questions. (For example What is your favourite sport?) 6. Verifying your address - Your address needs to be verified before you can send your application to UCAS. When you enter your address, UCAS will send you an with your verification code and instructions on what to do. UCAS can then send you s alerting you to changes to your application including decisions made by your chosen universities. 7. Username: You will then be issued with a username. You must make a note of it. It will not be displayed at a later stage. Please keep your username and password in a safe place you will need them each time you log on to Apply. 8. At the next screen you are asked How are you applying? Click on Through my school/college. On the next screen enter the BUZZWORD 9. You will then be asked if you are registering through your College. Click YES. 10. You will be asked to choose your course. If you are unsure or cannot find yours, please contact Student Services. 11. The next screen issues you with a Personal ID Number. Keep this number in a safe place. You will need to quote this number if you telephone UCAS.

8 Important Points Add the Fee Code if you are entitled to SAAS funding, your code should be 02 and you will then need to select Student Support Arrangements from the dropdown menu. If unsure, contact Student Services. Student Support Arrangements - Likely to be SAAS (Student Awards Agency for Scotland) if you are a Scottish student so select Student AA Scotland from the drop down list. If unsure, contact Student Services. Applications can be made online from April Make sure that the Disability section is filled in correctly. This will not affect your application, but can allow the university to start making any special arrangements necessary. Check the year of entry for your course is added. Education Section Check all your qualifications (and results so far) are added for the HN qualifications. This includes the course and listing all the modules that you are currently studying and hope to complete. Don t forget to add your Scottish Candidate Number (SCN)! This is extremely important as inputting it allows all your results to be send to UCAS directly, via the SQA. Your Reference Once you have registered it is your responsibility to make sure your Class Tutor knows that you are making a university application so that your academic reference can be added. This is essential, as UCAS will not process applications without a reference. Make sure you ask your tutor for a reference early on! Your Address College staff, UCAS staff and universities may use the address you give on your application to contact you please make sure that you use an address you check frequently. Remember your address will be seen by the universities you apply to so please make sure it does not cause offence! It is essential that you check and respond to your s regularly whilst you are making a UCAS application to make sure you don t miss any important messages.

9 Step 3: Writing your personal statement Your personal statement is a very important element of your application and can make the difference between gaining a university place or not. The university selector will want strong candidates who are self-motivated, interested in the subject area, and have the academic ability and personal attributes to succeed. If you were a University Selector, what would you be looking for and how can you demonstrate this through your personal statement? However, all universities have different selection requirements and we would advise you to get in touch with the University or department that you are applying to and ask them directly what they are looking for in applications. They may also have advice and guidance on the personal statement on their website. It is useful to look at examples of UCAS personal statements. To view examples and for a few more helpful tips and ideas see: The main points that should be included in a good personal statement are: Reasons for choice of course Background to your interest in this subject Relevant employment, work experience and/or placements Achievements Particular interest in your current area of study Career aspirations Industrial/professional placements and sponsorships Social/sporting hobbies, interest or pastimes With increased competition for places at University this year, a strong personal statement is essential.

10 Reasons for your choice of course - Have you: Shown evidence of research into course(s) you are applying for? Demonstrated your interest in the course? Commented on your enjoyment of relevant subjects? Have you researched career aspirations? Although universities will be interested in what activities you do outside of college, you should always relate them to how they will make you a better student. Relevant employment, work experience/placements - Have you: Included skills and experience from life, as well as college, related to your course choice? Included relevant career aspirations? Shown evidence of your motivation and ability to succeed as a student - do you have good time management, determination, self-motivation, an ability to be an independent learner at university? Shown what have you learned through your part-time jobs, past jobs, family life, sports activities, and voluntary work? Given evidence that others rate you highly or have given you responsibility? Universities will check your statement for plagiarism so make sure it s written in your own words! If your degree choice is vocational - Have you: Spoken to professionals to find out what the most challenging parts of the job are, what skills and attributes you need, and then ask how can I demonstrate I have these? Tried to get work experience or voluntary work relevant to your degree/career choice and evidence what you have learned from it? Demonstrated that you have the skills, personal attributes to do well in this vocation? Researched the vocation online, by speaking to someone who works in the profession or your college lecturer: are there certain initiatives, policies or buzzwords that you should be familiar with? Remember for vocational courses, universities are still looking for academic ability to show that you can cope with the course.

11 10 Top Tips for your personal statement 1. Don t be scared of saying positive things about yourself! Be proud and confident about your path and achievements in life. 2. Spend time doing your statement! Don t do it in a hurry, draft and re-draft. 3. First impressions count! Make sure you have perfect spelling, grammar and punctuation. 4. Seek advice - from the universities you are applying to and show your personal statement to friends and family, Careers and Guidance staff at your college. 5. Use your contacts - if you have a family friend who is a teacher, and you want to go into teaching for example, make sure you talk to them. 6. Make sure your statement is well set out - use paragraphs rather than one block of text. 7. Remember if you are starting in Year 2 or Year 3 at university, you need to demonstrate that you will be able to cope with joining at this level. Your College Articulation Support Adviser will be able to offer help and support too. 8. Don t start every sentence with I - try to be more creative! 9. Start and end on a positive! If you have had bad results in school or college, you can mention this but it would be best to put this in the middle of your statement. Explain what you have learned from this, how you do things differently now and what motivates you to do well now. 10. Demonstrate it! Don t just say you are interested in something, relate it to your course and demonstrate it with evidence! The UCAS application personal statement section does not spell check your statement. Prepare it in MS Word and copy and paste it into the application form. There is a limit of 4000 characters (including spaces) and 47 lines.

12 This student went on to a Nursing degree I work in an NHS hospital and have been a Health Care Assistant for over five years. During this time, I have helped different clientele groups in the health care industry. I have looked after people with alcohol abuse, substance abuse problems and clients with depression. My duties include; observation, writing care plans, interacting with them, escorting clients when they go shopping, ward rounds with panel of healthcare professionals, serving food, helping them with personal care, assisting the nurse in charge with observation on their medication, encouraging some of the clients on withdrawal to interact with others for group therapy. This has given me the chance to realise how my services are needed in the health sector and has inspired me to further my training to become a mental health nurse. I am currently studying Access to Health Studies with the hope of going to university. I am enjoying studying different modules; psychology, numeracy, human biology, health and drugs, communication, IT and research. All the above subjects need a lot of time spent within the college and outside. They involve a lot of preparation on assignments and research, a lot of planning and time management to complete. I am finding the above subjects to be helpful with my future career... A student applying for an Accountancy degree- I have worked part time in a bar for the last three years while attending college. My time management skills have helped me to balance the conflicting demands of part time work, full time study and my family responsibilities. At college, I have been a member of the students Association and served on the Executive Committee or two years. This involved representing the views of students to college management. I would like to continue my studies at university, firstly because I feel I would have the ability and determination to succeed and secondly, to further my career prospects in accountancy. Here are some comments from real Admissions Tutors: We don t want platitudes. In other words don t write things like: I would like to work in the media because I get on well with people or Studying English has given me good communication skills or I enjoy reading. These kinds of sentences are too shallow and obvious. Instead, give your statement a bit of individuality and pizzazz! Admissions tutors are busy, so you need to grab their attention what is it that makes you different? And do enthuse about the subject you re applying for. They like to see people who share their passion for their subject. But they also know their stuff, so don t be bland or patronising.

13 Step 4: Making sense of your offers You will receive a letter from UCAS with details of how you can follow the progress of your application on TRACK. You need your application Password and your Personal ID Number to access TRACK. Keep this information safe! Your reply deadline will be displayed in Track. The reply date is your individual reply date and it is often 9 th May. It is based on when you received the last decision from the universities and colleges. Your dates for replying to your offers may be different from your friends. Please check and reply by the right date or your offers will be declined by UCAS on your behalf. You can use TRACK to Follow the progress of your application Change your postal address, address and/or telephone number Make additional choices of course (if you applied for less than five) Apply for other courses in UCAS EXTRA Reply to your offers Withdraw your application UCAS will reply to each of your choices with one of the following offers: Unconditional Offer this means you have already met the criteria to allow you to study this course. Conditional offer this means that the university has set certain conditions that you have yet to meet before you can start the course, e.g. obtaining certain grades in your graded unit; portfolio requirements; passing an interview etc. Unsuccessful this means that your application was unsuccessful and you are not being offered a place. The reason will either be made clear by UCAS at this stage or sometimes it notes that the university will be in touch with you directly to explain.

14 Unconditional Offer You have been accepted with no conditions to meet Conditional Offer based on passing your course, often with grades yet to be achieved Unsuccessful You have not been offered a place Firm Acceptance If you accept this offer, you must decline all others Talk to Student Services or a Careers Adviser about UCAS EXTRA and CLEARING Firm Acceptance This is your preferred choice out of all the university offers you have received Insurance Acceptance Your insurance choice can be conditional or unconditional and acts as a back-up to your firm choice Firm Acceptance The firm acceptance is used to accept your first or preferred choice out of all the offers you have received. If you accept an unconditional offer, you are agreeing that you will attend the course at that university and must decline all other offers. If you accept a conditional offer, you are agreeing that you will attend the course at that university if you meet the conditions of the offer. You can accept another offer as an insurance offer. Insurance acceptance You can accept an offer as an insurance choice if your firm choice is a conditional offer. Your insurance choice can be conditional or unconditional and acts as a backup to your firm choice, so if you do not meet the conditions for your firm choice but meet the conditions for your insurance choice, you are committed to that course. If you accept an unconditional offer as your firm acceptance, you cannot accept another offer as an insurance acceptance. An unconditional offer can act as perfect insurance if the firm choice is conditional

15 Decline Once you have decided which offer to accept firmly and which (if any) to accept as an insurance, you must decline all other offers. If you do not want to accept any of the offers, you may decline them all. You will become eligible for Extra or Clearing, depending on your circumstances. You can accept a MAXIMUM of two positive offers a firm acceptance and an insurance acceptance. All others must be DECLINED UCAS Extra This is the opportunity for you to apply for another course if you do not hold any other offers. It runs from 25 th February to 6 th July You are eligible for Extra if you have: - already made five choices - received decisions from all these choices - had no offers or declined all offers received If you are made an offer through Extra and accept it you cannot apply again through Extra. If your Extra choice does not make you an offer or you do not receive a decision within 21 days you can apply for another choice, time permitting. UCAS Clearing If you are not made any offers you should contact the Careers Adviser to discuss other options. Clearing is a service available between July and September, but for most people it is used after the exam results are published in August. It can help people without a university or college place to find suitable vacancies on degree courses. If you are flexible and you have reasonable college results, you will be able to look for another course through Clearing. Due to high numbers of university. applications in recent years, fewer universities are advertising places through clearing

16 Official vacancy lists are published on the UCAS website and in the national media following the publication of exam results in August. You don't have to stick to the subject choices you made originally there may be other areas which could suit you better. The lists are updated continually, but not all universities, colleges and courses have vacancies in Clearing and those available may be filled quickly. There is no guarantee that places will be available on any particular course. Your Clearing Number is displayed on the welcome page and choices page in Track. When you contact a university of college, they will ask you for your Clearing Number to confirm that they can consider you in Clearing. They can then view your complete application immediately on their secure online system. If you have any questions during clearing, you should always check your application online on Track before contacting UCAS. However, if you need to phone UCAS, the Customer Service Unit on (or for CUKAS call ).

17 Step 5: Getting your college results Know your login details for Track Make sure you know your login details, as you'll need these to see if you've been accepted. Use the login reminder service on the Track page if you're not sure. Be available You need to be available when the results are published. You might have to make quick and perhaps difficult decisions about your future so be prepared to speak to universities and colleges yourself and not leave this to somebody else. Check your contact details Check that your personal details are correct in Track - UCAS and the universities and colleges contact you by , letter and sometimes by phone so make sure that they have your up-to-date details. If you change your address, please arrange for your mail to be redirected in case letters have already been sent. Making changes If you want to make changes to your choices, check the page which explains what to do. Getting your results Please note that SQA will normally send your HN certificate to you in July. It is your responsibility to forward this onto the university as soon as possible. This will enable the university to confirm your place as appropriate, and start sending you any joining information. It is your responsibility to give a copy of your results to the university as soon as you receive them in the summer. Applications for SAAS can be made from April You do not have to wait for your firm offer to apply for funding.

18 Step 6: Next Steps and Further Advice UCAS Yougo - is the UCAS social networking site that allows you to meet and chat with people who are also starting university next year. All you need is your Personal ID no. UCAStv - offers video guides to help understand the application process. Forgot your password or username? Click on student login, 2012 entry. Click lost login details. Or, call UCAS on Lost your qualification certificates or not received your results? Call Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) on or customer@sqa.org.uk Need help with your personal statement? Check out websites like Ask your lecturer, family and friends for input. Go to a UCAS workshop arranged by Careers or your ELRAH College to University Adviser. Make an appointment with your Careers Adviser or ELRAH College to University Adviser or ask their help at a drop-in session.

19 What is Articulation? HN Articulation means using a Higher National Qualification (HND/HNC) to progress to degree study. If you are currently completing an HNC or an HND, you can often go straight into the 2 nd or 3 rd year of a degree. Year 4 of degree SCQF level 10 Exit with honours degree Year 3 of degree SCQF level 9 Exit with ordinary degree HND SCQF level 8 Year 2 of degree SCQF level 8 HNC SCQF level 7 Year 1 of degree SCQF level 7 Entry to HN Traditional entry using school qualifications Ask your Tutor or Student Services for information about agreements which your college have with some universities to allow students entry to year 2 or 3. Even if your college has an agreement with a university you still need to apply through UCAS by the deadline. It is better to apply as early as possible. More information can be found here: or by speaking to your ELRAH Adviser.

20 UCAS Checklist- Have you... Choosing courses Read the UCAS student guide? Attended a UCAS workshop? Spoken to a careers adviser? Downloaded or ordered prospectuses? Checked the course entry requirements? Had your application checked for spelling and grammar? Found out if you can enter yr 2 or 3 of your degree? Visited the universities you are applying to? Attended the Going to University Event? Applying online Used the college buzzword? Asked your tutor for a reference? Noted down your Personal ID and password? Asked people you trust for their feedback? Kept a note of all the important deadlines? Added your current qualifications? Paid for your application? Replying to your Offers Got a note of your reply deadline? Visited the universities? Chosen a firm and insurance acceptance choice? Replied by the deadline? Or if you don t get any offers: Spoken to your Careers Adviser about your options? Investigated and applied for other courses through UCAS Extra and Clearing? Getting Your College Results Got a copy of your results? Sent off your results to the university?