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Guide for applicants aged under 18

We are committed to equal opportunities in our admissions process and welcome applications from applicants of all ages. 

If you will be under 18 on 1 October in the year of entry onto your course, you will be legally considered as a child under English law. Whilst the University will not assume parental responsibility for you, we must take all reasonable measures to ensure that risks of harm to your welfare are minimised. This means that additional processes and conditions will apply to you during the admissions process.

If you will be under 16 on 1 October in the year of entry, further additional considerations will also apply. We cannot consider applications from international students under 16 who would require a Student visa as UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) guidance states that students on a Student visa must be aged 16 or over. Therefore, we would not be able to sponsor your visa application.

The admissions process

Our admissions process for an applicant aged under 18 is broken down into the following steps:

  1. We assess your application against the course entry requirements, as normal.
  2. If we would like to offer you a place, we will carry out an age-related risk assessment to check if we can fulfill our duty of care towards you.
  3. If an offer can be made, we may put certain conditions in place that you and your parent/legal guardian must agree to. Your parent/legal guardian will also need to complete a consent form.

1. Assessing your application

You should apply as normal through the application route stated on our Course Search site. We will identify that you will be under 18 (or under 16) from your application form.

Your application will only be assessed against the standard entry requirements for the programme you have applied for, regardless of your age.

2. Risk assessment

If you may be eligible for an offer, we will commence an individual age-related risk assessment. This is part of our risk management approach to safeguarding to determine whether we are in a position to fulfil our duty of care to you.

This process works differently depending on how old you will be on 1 October in the year of entry:

  • If you will be aged 16 or 17 on 1 October in the year of entry, we will make you an offer that is conditional on the completion of the risk assessment and a parental/legal guardian consent form, alongside any other applicable conditions.
  • If you will be under 16 on 1 October in the year of entry, we will need to carry out the risk assessment and the University Secretary must approve the outcome before we can make you an offer. The offer would be conditional on the completion of a parental/legal guardian consent form, alongside any other applicable conditions.

The risk assessment may consider aspects including content and delivery of the programme, study arrangements, pastoral care, personal tutoring and accommodation. 

During the risk assessment, we may identify measures needed to safeguard your wellbeing, such as amendments or restrictions to module choices, choice of accommodation, provisions regarding field trips, and enhanced personal tutor contact.

We may need to add additional conditions that will apply to your conditional offer in line with the safeguarding measures identified by the risk assessment, and you will need to accept these conditions in order to take up your offer.

Any measures put in place as a result of the age-related risk assessment will cease to apply when you reach 18.

In exceptional cases, if it is identified in the risk assessment that reasonable adjustments cannot be made to safeguard you and your wellbeing, your application will be made unsuccessful, and we will notify you. In such circumstances, it may be possible to defer an offer to the next intake instead, and we will consider this on a case-by-case basis.

3. Accepting your offer

Once the initial stage of the risk assessment has been undertaken, we will send you details of any additional conditions that were identified during this step, and a parental/legal guardian consent form.

The consent form lists the responsibilities of your parent(s)/legal guardian(s) until you reach the age of 18. Your parent(s)/legal guardian(s) will need to sign this form to consent to these responsibilities and your attendance on the course, and they will also need to provide evidence of their relationship to you. 

We advise that you do not accept your offer until you have returned your consent form and agreed to any additional conditions.

Before you start your course, we will review the risk assessment to check if any further action is needed to fulfil our duty of care to you. 

Accommodation

Once an offer has been accepted (as your firm choice, if applying through UCAS), you can apply for University of Leeds accommodation. 

You must clearly identify in your application that you will be under 18 when you join us and inform us of any specialist needs or requirements that need to be considered as part of this process. The Accommodation Office will arrange accommodation that is suitable for students under 18. It may be a condition of your offer that you live in specified University accommodation.

Unless there are exceptional circumstances evidenced from the risk assessment, a student under 16 would not usually be housed in University accommodation. We would expect that a parent or legal guardian would either accompany you or appoint a guardian to take care of you until you reach 18 or are old enough to apply for University accommodation (once you are 16).

If you decide to live in private accommodation, your parent(s)/legal guardian(s) will be responsible for choosing and approving this. If they are not resident in the UK, we will recommend that they appoint a UK-based guardian for you.

We recommend you start your search for private accommodation with Unipol, a registered student accommodation charity that works closely with the University. Advice and support for finding private accommodation is on the Unipol website, including a house-hunting checklist. You should inform Unipol that you are under 18 when you contact them.

Travel and arrival in Leeds

Travelling to Leeds

If you will be under 18 when you travel to Leeds, we will ask for information about your travel plans so that we can check you have arrived safely at the University. 

If you are travelling from outside the UK, we strongly recommend that you plan to arrive at Manchester Airport or Leeds Bradford Airport and use our free airport pick up service. 

Read our advice about travelling to Leeds to reduce the risk of problems on your journey. 

Welcome and international orientation

Before you come to Leeds, we ask you to prepare by reading our online Welcome Guide. 

If you are joining us from outside the UK, we ask you to take part in our international orientation programme of both pre-arrival webinars and in-person sessions when you arrive.

Your first days in Leeds

You should visit our Student Information Service as soon as possible after arriving in Leeds. Our friendly team are here Monday to Friday to help you with getting set up with IT and a SIM card, completing registration and working through all the other start-up tasks.

They can also give you information about welcome and social activities, where to get food, how to find your way around campus, and any other questions about student life. 

Your first meeting with your school student support team

If you will be under 18 on 1 October, you must attend a welcome meeting with a member of your school student support team. In the meeting you will receive essential information about starting your course as an under 18 student and review the age-related risk assessment. Look out for an email to your University email address with an invitation to this meeting.

Under 18 students’ rights, responsibilities and expectations

Under 18 students joining the University understand that our campus is an adult environment where all students are required to act responsibly, live independently without University supervision and be comfortable living and studying alongside people whose ages and backgrounds are very diverse. 

Further information about your rights, responsibilities and expectations can be found in the Policy on safeguarding children, young persons and adults in vulnerable circumstances.

Help and support

The University will consider all applications fairly and effectively in line with the procedures outlined in the University of Leeds Admissions Policy.

If you have any questions, please contact your course admissions team via the email address provided in your offer letter or email the Admissions Enquiries team via study@leeds.ac.uk.