The UCAS admissions system
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What is UCAS?
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is the organisation responsible for centrally managing applications to UK higher education courses. The Service processes more than 2 million applications for full-time undergraduate courses every year, and helps students to find the right course for them. The organisation's main purpose is to make the application process run as smoothly as possible by providing all the information applicants should need to make their application and tracking their offers both online and in other forms.
University applications
Applications to universities, which may be made online, must be made by 15th October of the previous year for Oxford and Cambridge (and medicine, dentistry and veterinary science courses) and by January of the same year for admissions to other UK universities.
UCAS receives and passes A-level examination results to HEIs in mid-August. Offers to students are confirmed where grades have been met, or are passed back to departments where decisions need to be reconsidered. Students may then log into the UCAS system to see if they have achieved a place on the course of their choice.
What else does UCAS do?
UCAS organises conferences, education fairs and conventions across the UK and produces a wide range of publications. Staff at all universities are also involved in visiting schools to explain and describe the programmes and courses available at their establishment. This is all aimed at helping potential students to make informed decisions about higher education and to guide them, their parents and advisers through the application process.
Admissions staff at your university will be glad to explain the UCAS and institutional admissions system in more detail.