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 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.
If you require a Student visa and will be aged 18 on 1 October in the year of entry to your course, but will be under 18 when your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) is issued, a separate process applies.
Admissions process for applicants who will be under 18 on 1 October
Our admissions process for an applicant aged under 18 on 1 October in the year of entry is broken down into the following steps
1. Assessing your application
You should apply as normal through the application route stated on our Course Search site.
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 and offer
If you are eligible for an offer, the next step depends on how old you will be on 1 October in the year of entry:
- If you will be aged 16 or 17, we have a general age-related risk assessment that we will apply to you. It may be reviewed to ensure that reasonably practical steps are able to be taken and sufficient measures are put in place to safeguard your wellbeing. We will then make you an offer.
- If you will be under the age of 16, we will need to carry out an individual age-related risk assessment. The University Secretary must approve the outcome of the risk assessment before we can make you an offer.
For all students under 18, the offer would be conditional on any required safeguarding measures arising from the risk assessment, the completion of a parent/legal guardian consent form, and any other applicable conditions.
You must also ensure that you comply with the conditions outlined in the ‘Under 18 students’ rights, responsibilities, and expectations’ section of this page.
The completion of an age-related risk assessment 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. It considers aspects such as content and delivery of the programme, study arrangements, pastoral care, personal tutoring and accommodation.
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.
Where optional or discovery modules are available as part of your course, a further risk assessment may be required before your module choice can be confirmed.
Any measures put in place as a result of the risk assessment will cease to apply when you reach 18.
To avoid delays, you and your parent(s)/guardian(s) are encouraged to provide any additional information that you believe may be relevant to the risk assessment as soon as possible, such as any special needs/requirements.
In exceptional cases, if it is identified through the risk assessment that reasonable and proportionate adjustments cannot be made to safeguard you and your wellbeing, your application will be withdrawn, 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 you have received your conditional offer, we will send you details of any additional conditions that were identified during the risk assessment, and a parent/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.
Admissions process for applicants who will turn 18 by 1 October
If you require a Student visa and will turn 18 by 1 October but you will be 17 when you receive your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS), your parent(s)/legal guardian(s) will need to complete a consent form and provide evidence of their relationship to you. We will contact you with information on how to fulfil these requirements before we issue your CAS.
If you require a Student visa and will turn 18 by the time you receive your CAS, no additional admissions processes will apply.
If you do not require a Student visa and will turn 18 by 1 October in the year of entry, no additional admissions processes will apply.
Data protection
Although students under 18 are regarded as children, their rights under the Data Protection Act 1998 require that no information be disclosed about them (including to parents/guardians) without their consent. Students under the age of 18 must be prepared to consent to personal information being released to their parent(s)/guardian(s) in the event of medical emergencies.
Applicants under 18 do not have full legal capacity to enter into all contracts. Accordingly, where necessary (for example, in relation to accommodation), the University may ask the parent(s)/guardian(s) to act as the guarantor(s) for the delivery of certain services.
If you do not consent to the University taking a photograph or video of you and using this for marketing or promotional material, please contact the relevant admissions team. Their contact details can be found on the relevant Course Search page.
With regard to lecture capture activity (recording of educational activities such as lectures), if you do not wish to be recorded, then you should raise that with the member of staff seeking to make the recording in accordance with the existing Policy on Audio or Video Recording for Educational Purposes.
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. You should inform Unipol that you are under 18 when you contact them.
UK guardians
Where parent(s)/guardian(s) are not resident in the UK, they still remain primarily responsible for the welfare of the student. The University recommends that your parents/guardians consider the appointment of a local guardian resident in the UK.
If a UK guardian is appointed, please provide a copy of the relevant Guardianship Agreement that confirms that they are to act in the position of guardian and provides their contact details.
Where parent(s)/guardian(s) do not consider the appointment of a UK guardian to be necessary, this must be confirmed in writing and emergency contact details must be provided.
Further information is available from the Association for the Education and Guardianship of International Students (AEGIS).
Travel and arrival in Leeds
Travelling to Leeds
If you will be under 18 when you travel to Leeds, we may 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 to get set up with IT and a SIM card, complete registration and work through all the other start-up tasks.
Students under 18 will be assigned a personal tutor and may be asked to meet with that personal tutor more frequently, as identified in the risk assessment process.
They can also give you information about welcome and social activities, where to get food and how to find your way around campus, and answer 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.
Whilst recognising that the University has an enhanced duty of care because of your age, it does not take parental responsibility for you. When receiving University services, you are expected to take primary responsibility for your own emotional and physical development.
You must disclose your age, especially in relation to activities away from your academic school and in relation to all contact with the students’ union, including clubs and societies.
The majority of the staff at the University are not subject to Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checking. In most cases, the University would not be entitled to undertake such checks. Whilst the University will carry out DBS checks on members of staff who would be undertaking Regulated Activity and/or having significant contact with you, the environment is not one in which DBS checking is the norm, as it would be, for example, in a school.
It is illegal for alcohol to be sold to anyone under 18. Whilst the University will take reasonable steps to ensure that it does not sell alcohol to a student under 18, it expects students to act responsibly by not attempting to purchase alcohol.
Similarly, internet access is unrestricted, and it is not possible for the University to limit access to age-appropriate sites. Therefore, students under 18 are expected to observe rules and regulations about acceptable use of the internet and access to other adult material in the University.
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.