For students planning to pursue an undergraduate degree in the UK next year, April 2025 marks the beginning of the application timeline.
On 30th April, the UCAS search tool will display all programs open for the 2026 intake for undergraduate students.
UCAS – the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service – is a central application platform through which prospective undergraduate students can apply to all available undergraduate programs across UK universities. Students can build one application to be sent to up to five universities.
The UCAS search tool enables students to filter through all available programs to build their shortlist. Higher education consultants advise students to begin their own research in advance to make the best use of their time once the UCAS Hub is open for admissions.
Undergraduate applications for the 2025 session will begin on 14th May, 2026, with application deadlines set for 3rd September 2026.
This year also marks significant changes to the UCAS application structure from previous years. One notable change, to take effect for the 2026 entry, is to the UCAS personal statement. Where previously this statement was a long-form written piece, students beginning applications in 2025 to commence their studies in 2026 will be answering a set of three shorter-form questions instead.
The purpose of this change is to help applicants better structure their answers by focusing on the substance of each question. Each answer will be a minimum of 350 characters long.
For 2026 entrants, the UCAS personal statement questions are as follows:
Question 1: Why do you want to study this course or subject?
Question 2: How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
Question 3: What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?
For applicants commencing their studies in 2025, there are certain changes to the application structure that students and advisers need to be aware of as well.
