- Where to start?
- Step 1: Choosing courses
- Step 2: Applying
- Step 3: Offers
- Step 4: Results
- Step 5: Next steps
- Step 6: Starting university or college
- FAQs
- News
- Student finance
- Important dates
- Events
- Student number controls
Understand the commonly used words and phrases
Below is a list of commonly used words and phrases, together with a summary of their meanings.
Apply: the online application system for applying for higher education courses. Apply and its supporting information can be accessed here.
Adjustment: applicants who have met and exceeded the conditions of their firm choice are given an opportunity to look for an alternative place while holding their original confirmed place.
Clearing: a system used towards the end of the academic cycle, which enables an applicant who has not yet secured a place to apply for course vacancies.
Conditional offer: an offer made to an applicant by a university or college, whereby the applicant must fulfil certain criteria before they can be accepted on the relevant course.
CUKAS (Conservatoires UK Admissions Service): an online application service for practice-based music courses at eight of the UK conservatoires. Visit www.cukas.ac.uk for more information.
Confirmation: when conditional offers that have been accepted by an applicant become unconditional or are declined. Confirmation is dependent on an applicant's qualification/exam results.
Deferral: holding an offer until the following year.
Entry Profiles: comprehensive information about individual courses and institutions, including statistics and entry requirements. Entry Profiles are found on Course Search.
Extra: the opportunity to apply for another course if an applicant has used all five choices and has not secured a place.
Firm offer: the offer that the applicant has accepted as their first choice.
Institution: a university or college offering higher education courses.
Insurance offer: the offer that the applicant has accepted as their second choice, in case they do not meet the requirements for their firm offer.
Invitation: an invitation from a university or college to attend for interview, audition, or provide a portfolio, essay, or other piece of work.
Personal ID: a 10-digit individual number assigned to an applicant when they register on Apply. It is printed on every letter we send.
Point of entry: the applicant's year of entry to the course, for example, 2 refers to the second year of the course.
Scheme Code: used in conjunction with the Personal ID to uniquely identify an application.
Track: a system where applicants can track the progress of their application online, reply to any offers received, and make certain amendments, for example, change of address or email.
UCAS Tariff: the UCAS Tariff is the system used for allocating points (numerical values) to qualifications and establishing agreed comparisons between different types of qualifications used for entry into higher education.
Unconditional offer: an offer given to an applicant by a university or college, whereby the applicant has satisfied the criteria and can attend the course.
Unistats: a website for students who want to research and compare subjects and universities before deciding where to apply. Students can also look at student satisfaction ratings and explore the figures about getting a graduate job after completing a course. Visit the Unistats website
Unsuccessful: the applicant has not been accepted by the university or college concerned.
Withdrawal: either an applicant or university/college cancels a choice before a decision has been made - a reason will be included if the withdrawal was issued by an institution.