Admissions statement for 2024 entrants

​​​ Read our current advice for UCAS applicants to University of Gloucestershire for 2024 entry.

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​Director’s update – October 2024

Jump to: Competition for Places | Offers and entry requirements | Interviews and auditions | Conditional/Unconditional offers | Results/qualifications from 2023 | Resitting qualifications from 2022-23 | UCAS Personal statements and references

​​​Our applicants are very important to us. University of Gloucestershire has always been flexible on entry criteria and we consider it essential as we support our future students in making the transition to study with us.

As always, please keep in touch with us with any queries, questions and we look forward to your application. At Gloucestershire we are committed to supporting our students to be the best they can be, before, during and after their time with us.

Competition for Places

We appreciate that applying for university is a first-time experience for most students and the challenges associated with life at School/college during 2020-2023. have added uncertainty to the process. We encourage you to keep an open mind – be positive and confident in your choice to apply to us.

We are not expecting competition for our degrees to be significantly different from previous years and want to reassure you that we welcome and consider each and every application we receive – last year we received around 8,000 UCAS applications for around 2,000 places. The vast majority of our UK applicants receive offers from us or an invitation to an informal interview or audition, even for our highly popular courses.

Don’t forget that you can apply to up to 5 university/course choices via UCAS – so we all have more applications than places initially. At UoG some of our applicants apply to more than one course with us, and we are happy to receive multiple choices.

We recommend an application on or before the 31 Jan 2024 UCAS equal consideration deadline but continue to accept applications after this date.

Offers and entry requirements

We will continue to be flexible and welcoming with all applications we receive and we have not significantly changed our entry requirements this year compared to 2022 or 2023. Some of our courses are highly popular (such as Physiotherapy, Primary Teaching and Paramedic Science), – in all cases our mindset is to find reasons to make you an offer or send you an interview invite, not to reject you. The average overall UCAS tariff on entry at UOG is around 112-120 UCAS points (around CCC-BBB at A level is typical), but we accept a range of grades and make offers across the UCAS tariff.

If your predicted grades are lower than our typical offers, we normally still make you a conditional offer and/or invite you to interview, particularly if your predictions are relatively close to our entry requirements.

We’ll continue to welcome additional qualifications such as EPQ and Welsh Baccalaureate alongside A levels, BTEC, PreU and Cambridge Technical. We also accept a mix of A levels and vocational/technical qualifications and have embraced T levels too. We welcome Access to HE course applicants – popular with mature students over 21 and accept applications from students of all ages – around 20% of our students in 2023 were aged over 21 on entry. Our students come from over 50 countries worldwide – so our admissions team are experienced in making offers to a wide range of international qualifications.

Interviews and auditions – mainly on-campus for 2024 entry

We are planning for our interviews to be face to face, on campus during December 2023 – April 2024. It’s fantastic that you are able to visit us in person to see our excellent facilities and meet our staff/students.   We will also offer many applicants the opportunity for an online interview if they are unable to visit us in person or prefer an online option.

We have published guidance and tips on what to expect for your interview and these will be updated regularly if needed. We will be running interviews for courses that normally include a conditional offer (i.e. you have to achieve a particular grade to be assured of a place) such as Nursing, Paramedic Science, Physiotherapy, Teaching and Social Work.

We also interview/audition for courses such as Arts, Creative subjects, Film and TV, Design and Architecture where a tailored, unconditional or conditional offer may form part of the process. Attending the interview is more likely to mean an unconditional offer from us, or other incentive to do your best.

Please inform your school or college if you’ll be taking part in interviews during December-April, as they may need to provide time out of classes for you and other students to take part. If you are having online interviews, please contact us for advice on what to expect and any tech you will need.

There is not a dress code for these interviews. As always, consider how you come across in a relaxed and professional way, relevant to the industry or career you would like to work in. Again, our interview guidance pages will be regularly updated if required. Above all, relax, we are here to welcome you.

There will also be campus visit opportunities during the process to allow you to get a feel for our campuses in Cheltenham and Gloucester.  These will be published on our campus visit pages when available – we look forward to welcoming you.

These are called Offer Holder Days. Offer holder days normally take place during February/March 2024. Friends, Parents and Guests are welcome too and we have larger open days planned for summer 2024

Conditional and Unconditional offers

The majority of the offers we make in 2024 will be conditional – i.e. with requirements to achieve particular grades in your qualifications.

The University of Gloucestershire has always been flexible on entry criteria and we consider it essential as we support our future students in making the transition to study with us.

For courses which require an interview or audition, such as arts, design and creative industries, the outcome of the interview/audition will form part of the selection process and may include a tailored conditional or unconditional offer. The interview is nothing to worry about and is a designed to be a positive experience.

Students who already have their grades (eg if they have taken a gap year or deferred entry, or took their qualifications a few years ago) may receive an unconditional offer in the normal way, including those who require an interview first.

You should not feel pressured into making an early decision by your other choices and can wait to hear from all your chosen universities before deciding which courses to accept as your firm and insurance choice. You will receive a date by which to reply to all your offers from UCAS (this is 6 June 2024 for most UK applicants). Our first-year accommodation application deadline is in July, so you have plenty of time to make your decision to study with us.

We have lots of university-managed accommodation in Cheltenham and Gloucester, on or close to campus, with a first-year guarantee scheme in place. Unlike some other UK Universities and cities, we are able to offer all those first year students a place in University managed accommodation in Cheltenham/Gloucester if they need it (as always, terms, conditions and deadlines apply).

If you are ready to accept an offer, and secure your place in our campus accommodation, there is no need to wait – we open applications for our accommodation in January 2024.

If you have results and qualifications from 2022-23

If you achieved your final qualifications in the last academic year and meet our typical offer for your chosen degree (after any relevant interview if this applies) then we will to consider and accept those results as normal. If your grades are not as you hoped, we may be able to offer you a foundation year or invite you to an informal interview to assess your motivation and competence.

Resitting qualifications from 2023

We welcome applications if you are resitting some or all of your qualifications from 2023 or 2022. We will accept the results of any resit exams taken this year, as long as you receive the results by the end of the 2024 cycle, which is normally August 2024.

UCAS Personal statements and references, including work experience

Due to COVID-19 and other issues, we appreciate that some applicants will have struggled to find work experience during 2020-23 to support their application.

Universities including Gloucestershire will think flexibly about work experience and not penalise you for limitations to this. However, we would encourage you to think about what you can do, rather than what you have missed. Have you read up on your course or vocation so you can demonstrate that on your application? Have you accessed any virtual opportunities such as webinars and experiences that provide an insight?

If you have been volunteering or working, talk about your transferable skills. You may want to reflect on how you have adapted to the situation in your personal statement and any interviews you go along to.

It will be particularly important in your Personal Statement to talk about the relevance of relatable skills. What do you know, why do you want to do the course and what difference do you want to make? If there are particular skills you know will be needed for your course, such as group work, develop any skills you might need to strengthen such as confidence communicating to others. It’s also worth remembering that everyone is in the same situation as you.

Don’t forget that in general we are finding reasons to make you an offer or invite you to an interview, not finding reasons to reject you.

And finally – stay positive!

As always, please keep in touch with us with any queries, questions and we look forward to your application. At Gloucestershire we are committed to supporting our students to be the best they can be, before, during and after their time with us.