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Access to Leeds application guidelines

If you are applying for Access to Leeds, this guidance will help you and your referee to complete the application. 

If you are an applicant, you must complete the ‘Access to Leeds Application 2026’ online form. Read guidance on completing the application. 

If you are a referee for someone who is applying (such as a teacher, tutor, or careers adviser), you must complete the ‘Access to Leeds Reference Request’ online form. You will receive a link to this via email, which will be individual to the applicant you are providing the reference for.  Read guidance on completing the reference request.

We cannot confirm your eligibility until you submit the application form. However, you are welcome to contact us with any questions about eligibility, and we will do our best to provide guidance. There is no limit to the number of places on Access to Leeds, and anyone who can be verified as meeting the criteria will be considered eligible. This does not guarantee that you will receive an offer.  

You can email the Access to Leeds team at accesstoleeds@leeds.ac.uk or phone the Access to Leeds team on +44(0)113 343 8952. Our phone lines are open Monday to Friday, 10 am to 4 pm. 

Applicants: completing the Access to Leeds application form

Section 1: your UCAS application

You will be asked if you have completed and submitted your UCAS application. If you have not yet submitted your application to your chosen universities, you will not be able to progress with the application, and should return to complete it after you have submitted your UCAS application.  

Section 2: applicant details

UCAS ID number: Please enter your 10-digit personal ID. Check carefully to ensure this is correct, as we will use this to track your application.  

Home postcode: This should match the postcode on your UCAS application, and is the address you would consider to be your permanent or main home.  

Email address: Correspondence from the Access to Leeds team will be via email. Where possible, try to provide a personal email address instead of a school email address, which you may lose access to at the end of the school year, whilst still participating in the scheme. 

Please inform the Access to Leeds team if you change your email address, so that you do not miss out on any important information. If you don’t inform us of any changes, we cannot take responsibility for you not receiving information regarding your application or other elements of the scheme. 

Section 3: outreach activity at the University of Leeds

Please use this section to let us know if you have participated in any other programmes at the University of Leeds, which include Reach for Excellence or Medicine/Dental Futures, or if you are a previous Access to Leeds eligible applicant.  

You will need to enter your Futures or Reach for Excellence ID, and you will not be able to proceed with your application without this. If you have participated in one of these programmes, you will also be asked to input the criteria you meet and provide details of a referee however, we will not contact them automatically.  We will check your participation in these programmes and may contact you if we have any related questions.  

Section 4: referee details

You will need to enter the full name and email address of your referee. It is very important that you carefully check that their email address is correct, as they will receive an automatic notification to complete your reference.  

Please ensure you have spoken to your referee to advise them that you are applying to Access to Leeds and that they should expect to receive a reference request to their email.  It is your responsibility to ensure that your referee also completes their section by the Access to Leeds deadline for your chosen course.

Section 5: applicant eligibility criteria

In this section, you must indicate which Access to Leeds criteria you believe you meet by answering yes or no to each point. If you select ‘care experienced’ or ‘disrupted studies’, you will be prompted to provide some additional details in a text box. There is a character limit to this answer, so you will need to be brief.  You will also be asked to detail the impact this has had on your education.

Household income criteria 

If you state that you are eligible under the ‘Household income under £25,000’ criteria and are not entitled to free school meals or the 16-19 bursary, your parent/carer must complete an additional Declaration of Household Income form. A link to this online form will be sent to you by email if you have ticked the box ‘Your parent/carer will submit evidence of household income’. Please ensure this is completed by your parent/carer/main income earner as soon as possible.  It is your responsibility to ensure that this is submitted by the Access to Leeds deadline for your chosen course.

Applicant declaration

Please type your name in the signature box to confirm that the information provided is true, complete, and accurate. This box must not be left blank, or the application will not be processed until complete. 

Once your application is submitted, you will not be able to go back and change anything. You will receive an email confirmation upon completion.  

Once your referee has completed the reference request, you will receive another email confirmation that this has been done.  

Your eligibility information will be automatically emailed to your referee, so you should speak to them about any circumstances that they will be expected to verify in their reference for you.  

You can find information on what happens after you apply on the How to apply page.

Referees: completing the reference request

Once the applicant has completed an Access to Leeds application, you will receive a link to an online form to complete the reference request. It will be sent through an automatically generated email to the name and email address the applicant provided for you. 

You will receive regular email reminders for up to two weeks until you have completed the reference request.  The reference must be submitted by the Access to Leeds deadline for the applicant’s chosen course to be considered.

Who can provide a reference?

A teacher, tutor, or careers advisor must complete the reference request, indicating which eligibility criteria the applicant meets. For applicants who are not currently in education, an employer or previous tutor can complete this section. 

Section 1: Referee personal details 

Please give details of your name, job title, relationship to the applicant, and email address so that the University can contact you if any additional information is required to support the application. 

Section 2: Applicant eligibility criteria 

As a referee for the application, we need you to confirm the applicant’s eligibility for the Access to Leeds scheme, to the best of your knowledge.  

The answers provided by the applicant are displayed at the top of this section, and they have been advised to speak to you about any personal circumstances. Please indicate yes or no to each of the criteria points. Please see the eligibility guidelines for more details. 

If the applicant’s education has been disrupted or they are care-experienced, you must provide additional details of the impact this has had on their education in the space provided. 

Disruption due to COVID-19 is generally no longer considered other than in exceptional circumstances. The disruption must have impacted the applicant in a way that is above and beyond any disruption their peers were experiencing at the time. 

We do not usually ask for any additional supporting evidence of an applicant’s personal circumstances, so confirmation to the best of your knowledge is completely acceptable. 

Referee declaration: Please type your name in the signature box to confirm that the information is accurate, to the best of your knowledge. This box must not be left blank or the application will not be processed until complete. 

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