To help you understand what the reference letter is, and how to write one, we’ve come up with a guide applicable for both students and referees. UCAS reference letters, therefore, play an important role in the application process and can influence whether a student will be accepted into university. This will help evidence the student’s potential to succeed in Higher Education and how they might contribute to university life.The UCAS reference letter is used by admissions teams to gain a fuller impression of applicants.

If you feel the predicted grades for the student do not portray their potential, now is your opportunity to provide further information or evidence about their academic abilityĪlongside academic qualifications, you can include information on the student’s skills, achievements and experience.

The Admissions team will find this helpful when assessing their application

If the student is taking non-standard qualifications, resitting qualifications or having exam papers re-marked, include this in the reference.

These help inform the university of what the student is expected to achieve

It is important that you include a summary of the student’s academic performance and give accurate predicted grades.

We spoke to Antonia Fox, Senior Admissions Administrator, who gave us an insight into what exactly you should include in the reference. If the applicant left education years ago, an employer, volunteering supervisor or trainer can write the reference.Īs a referee, you will need to provide your contact details such as email address, phone number, school/college name and full address, as well as your relationship to the student. References should be written by somebody who knows the applicant academically, such as a current teacher, tutor, principal or head teacher.

It is important to remember that it is an academic reference, so it should not be written by family, friends or partners as this could result in the application being cancelled. Like a personal statement, UCAS references also have to be less than either 4000 characters or 47 lines.

They allow an unbiased but positive account of a student and their abilities, in addition to their own personal statement. UCAS references are an important part of the UCAS journey and provide an academic assessment of an applicant’s suitability for a course.

By Amy Fairbrother - 7 December 2018 What is a UCAS reference?

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