- Six steps for applicants
- Apply and Adviser Track
- Our role in the process
- Training sessions
- Non-UK advisers
- Guides and resources
- UCAS Tariff
- Conferences and events
- News
- Important dates
- Student finance
- Student number controls
How your students reply to their offers
Once we have received all decisions by universities and colleges about an application, we will email the applicant to ask them to look at Track. If they haven't provided a valid email address we will send them a letter.
The applicant's deadline to reply will be printed on the letter and displayed in Track: there is no single date for all applicants; it depends on the applicant's circumstances, such as when the last decision was made.
However, you can view a list of main deadlines and reply dates here.
They reply to each offer with one of the following responses:
- firm acceptance
- insurance acceptance
- decline.
Firm acceptance
The firm acceptance is the applicant's first choice - this is their preferred choice out of all the offers they have received. Applicants only have one firm acceptance.
If an applicant accepts an unconditional offer, they are agreeing that they will attend the course at that university or college and must decline all other offers. We will send them a letter which will explain if they need to do anything else.
If they accept a conditional offer, they are agreeing that they will attend the course at that university or college if they meet the conditions of the offer. They can accept another offer as an insurance choice.
Insurance acceptance
An applicant can accept an offer as an insurance choice if their firm choice is a conditional offer. Their insurance choice can be conditional or unconditional and acts as a back-up to their firm choice, so if they do not meet the conditions for their firm choice but meet the conditions for their insurance choice, they are committed to that course.
They do not have to have an insurance choice. We recommend that they only make an insurance choice if they are certain that they would be happy to take up the offer, in the event that they are not accepted by their firm choice.
Decline
Once they have decided which offer to accept firmly, and which (if any) to accept as an insurance, an applicant must decline all other offers. If they do not want to accept any of the offers, they may decline them all. They will then become eligible for Extra or Clearing, depending upon their circumstances.
Applicants use Track to reply to offers. Their reply deadline will be displayed in Track. If they do not reply by the date given, their offers will be declined by us on their behalf. The reply date is their individual reply date and it may be different from other people's. This is because it is based on when they received the last decision from their universities and colleges.