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England, Wales and Northern Ireland
England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Usually 3 years to complete a Bachelor degree.
4 years for any Bachelor degree that includes the following: a) a year abroad at another university, b) a year in industry, working as part of the degree. c) An integrated Masters programme or an accreditation year (such as can be the case with engineering) or d) An integrated Foundation programme before the Bachelors.
Scotland
Scotland
Usually 4 years to complete a Bachelor degree.
Bachelor degrees from Scottish universities offer more flexibility than those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, in that alongside your degree (Major) subject you can also choose 2 Minor subjects and you can sometimes change your Major subject in Years 1 & 2. Different Scottish universities will have varying degrees of flexibility, this can be also depend on the course.
Overview of UK applications
Overview of UK applications
Conditional offers from all UK universities are based on the Predicted IB Grades
A maximum of 5 undergraduate degrees can be applied for through UCAS.com.
Conditional offers can vary from university to university, ranging from specific requirements in both the overall grade (out of 45) + HL requirements, to requiring the overall grade OR the HL grades. It will be important to keep track of these requirements when making your decision where to apply to.
IB subject requirements for most Bachelor courses will be listed on UCAS.com and the individual university websites.
Once all five applications respond, a 'Firm Choice' is chosen (typically in April) where the student would go if the conditional offer is met and an 'Insurance Choice' is chosen, which should be a lower conditional offer than the firm, as it is meant to be safety net in case the firm choice condition is not met.
Applications to many Drama Schools, private Business Schools/Universities and non-integrated Foundation Courses are usually made directly to the institution. These can be in addition to the 5 choices on UCAS.
Admissions Tests:
Please see the admissions test page on the UCAS website here for a comprehensive list of the tests. Please keep in mind that you should always check the specific course requirements for each university to see if you are required to take an admissions test.
Depending on the course and/or university, additional exams may need to taken, these will typically need to be registered for and taken in either October or January at a Pearson Test Centre (with the exception of the UCAT which is taken during the summer at the end of Year 12), the most common are:
UCAT for all medicine courses;
TMUA for Economics, Computer Science and Mathematics courses (at some universities, such as LSE, Warwick, Imperial, UCL and Durham);
ESAT for some courses such as Engineering and Physics at Imperial College and UCL
LNAT for Law - a list of 9 UK universities listed here
TARA for some social science and computer science courses at UCL - as there is no definitive list (as of 19th May 2025), please check entry requirements for the course you are intending on applying to at UCL
As of the application season of 2026-27 Oxford and Cambridge will be using the same admissions tests. See here a full list of courses and which test would be required Oxford and here for Cambridge.
Engagement in the subject - If a student wishes to explore a subject outside of their school curriculum, the below resources could help:
Oxford Suggest Subject Resources
King’s College London Recommended Pre-University Reading List for PPE
Presentations
Presentations
UK Personal Statements 2025/26 given 27th June 2025: Video HERE and Slides HERE
UK University application overview given 3 February 2026 : video available HERE and slides HERE
UK Highly selective universities presentation February 2025: Video HERE and slides HERE
Sports Recuitment in the US and UK presentation from May 2024: Video HERE
Medical Programme given 25 March 2025: Video HERE and slides HERE
Other recordings and slides of past online presentations HERE
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