Parents FAQs

It depends on the course. Very competitive courses (such as Medicine, Dentistry and Law) are very unlikely to accept grades below the published entry requirements. 

For some other courses, we try to offer flexibility where possible, especially for applicants who have Leeds as their firm choice. Although we can’t guarantee a decision before A Level (and equivalent) results are confirmed, we review each case carefully, and look for opportunities to admit students who show the potential to succeed while still maintaining our academic standards. 

Students eligible for contextual admissions may receive lower offers.  

Applicants from backgrounds that are less represented at university may be eligible to receive a lower offer. Access to Leeds is the University of Leeds’ contextual admissions scheme that offers an opportunity to study a degree with lower entry requirements than listed on our course pages. This can be up to two grades lower than the usual requirement. The programme also offers a study module, events and support to prepare young people for university. Different universities have their own contextual admissions processes and these can vary in terms of what they offer, so it’s important to check the individual requirements.  

A prospective student can apply for up to five courses/universities and they do not need all be same course.  However, it’s usually easier to write a strong personal statement when the courses are similar. If they choose very different courses, they’ll need to focus their personal statement on skills and experiences that apply to all options. UCAS has a lot of great guidance for writing a personal statement for multiple courses.  

We don’t usually recommend applying to similar courses with the same entry requirements, for example French BA and French and Spanish BA, or Biology BSc and Zoology BSc as applicants are usually either suitable for both or for neither. It’s always good to check with admissions teams for advice however, as there may be exceptions with the more competitive courses.  

Schools will set internal deadlines to help make sure that students have enough time to draft, re-draft and submit their personal statement and complete other aspects of the UCAS application. Many schools will hold sessions with tips and advice for the application and may invite speakers from universities to talk about the process. However, the amount of support can vary from school to school, so it also important that your young person does their own research and manages their time to make sure that they meet the application deadlines. 

Your young person will receive their results from their school or college – this may be in person, by post or electronically. Universities are not permitted to disclose results to applicants. For other qualifications, such as BTECs they may already know their results.  

If a prospective student meets their offer conditions (i.e. entry grades) for their firm choice, they will be accepted and this will show in UCAS Hub as confirmed. If they miss the firm conditions but meet the requirements for their insurance choice, that university will become the confirmed choice instead. 

If neither the firm nor insurance university can accept your young person’s grades, they will normally either: 

• Be offered an alternative course, or occasionally a start date for the following year. 

• Be declined for both choices and enter UCAS Clearing to look for alternative options.

We can reconsider some applicants who have not met their offer conditions, so they will not automatically be made unsuccessful. For some courses, we may be able to offer a small degree of flexibility in order to accept applicants who narrowly missed their grades.  

Clearing is for students who don’t currently hold a university offer — for example, if they didn’t receive or accept any offers, didn’t meet their grades, changed their mind about their course, or applied after 30 June. Some courses may already be full, but there are usually opportunities available. 

For students who already have their results, early Clearing opens in early July, with the main Clearing period on A Level results day. Our Clearing webpages will list available courses and explain how your young person can contact us to discuss a Clearing application. 

If they don’t meet the grades for direct entry to their chosen course, they may want to consider a foundation year, which helps students prepare for degree-level study and progress to an undergraduate course after successful completion. Find out more about foundation courses at Leeds, please note some have specific entry criteria.  

UCAS also offers Clearing Plus, which suggests suitable course vacancies based on a prospective student’s application. You can find full details about Clearing on the UCAS website. 

If your young person meets or exceeds the offer conditions of their firm choice they may want to reconsider where and what to study. They can choose to decline their place and release themselves into Clearing, but they must speak to the university they want to move to first to check they can be accepted onto a course. 

Once they have confirmation of a place, they use the ‘decline your place’ button on UCAS to enter Clearing. They shouldn’t release themselves into Clearing before they have a confirmed offer, otherwise they may be left without a place.

If your young person holds an offer from us but wants to change their course or year of entry, this may be possible. They should contact the admissions team for their course (and for the new course, if applicable) to discuss this. Contact details can be found in Course Search. 

It isn’t possible to change firm and insurance choices, if a prospective student decides that they no longer wish to attend their firm choice, their only option is to decline it in UCAS Hub once they have their results. This will place them into Clearing, not with their insurance choice, so they should consider their decision carefully. 

Every new first year undergraduate is guaranteed University accommodation as long as they apply by the July deadline before starting their course. Students apply through the accommodation portal, where they enter their details and their top five choices.  

They can also tell us about any disabilities, mental health conditions or dietary restrictions so these can be considered when assigning accommodation.  We have 21 different Halls of Residence covering different price ranges and encourage applicants to view options either online or at our Open Days before submitting their application. Accommodation | University of Leeds. 

No. As long as students apply by the July deadline, all applications are given equal consideration. We do our best to match students with their preferences, but this can’t be guaranteed. 

We guarantee an offer of single University arranged accommodation for new first year students, as long as they apply by the accommodation deadline of 1 July (if Leeds is their firm choice) or 31 August (if Leeds is their insurance choice or they are coming to Leeds through Clearing). Please note this information is correct for 2026 and may change for future years. 

Find out more about our accommodation guarantee. 

Eligible full-time or part-time UK or EU students can apply for a loan from the government to cover the full cost of the tuition fees and may be eligible to apply for a maintenance loan to help with day-to-day living costs at university. Tuition fees are paid directly to the university by the loans company. 

Your young person can apply for student finance through the relevant website. For most students in England, this would be Student Finance England. 

They will not have to start paying it back until they are earning over a certain amount. There is information on repaying student loans on Gov.UK. 

Further information on student loans can be found on our funding webpage and there is additional information for parents available too.  

Parental contributions to living costs are expected in England if the household income is above £25,000, as higher income reduces the maintenance loan entitlement.  You must register online to submit income details, usually required for students under 25. Maintenance loans are means-tested, based on household income. There is no means-testing for the tuition fees loan.  

Martin Lewis – also known as the Money Saving Expert - has discussed extensively in the media about the, sometimes hidden, parental contribution to university living costs and has created a dedicated web page to this as well as a Parent Contributions Calculator. There is also a lot of help and guidance on Save the Student website. 

If your household income changes, Student Finance can reassess your situation. If your income is now significantly different from the last tax year, you can submit a current tax year income assessment to the student loan provider so they can update the student loan entitlement. 

Student Finance normally checks income once a year, usually in May. However, if your income changes before then, you should submit the updated information as soon as possible. 

Your young person will be contacted directly if their loan amount changes following a reassessment. 

This varies but our Living cost and budgeting page offers guidance about the typical cost of living for students in Leeds. You can also visit Leeds University Union money advice pages. 

The University of Leeds offers a range of scholarships aimed at supporting students. We offer a number of subject-related scholarships for UK and international undergraduate students. All of these scholarships have academic achievement as a key awarding criteria for the scholarship. The University of Leeds also offers a number of scholarships and bursaries based on personal circumstances as we believe that if you have the talent, drive and potential to succeed, we want to make sure you can study with us whatever your financial circumstances. There are additional eligibility criteria for these awards which you can find out more about on our funding webpage. 

We also offer Sports and Coaching Scholarships for those who compete at the highest level. You can find out more information about our Sport Scholarships on our website.