Destination Education
00:01:02 · Barbara Lestak
[00:01:02] S1: Yeah, absolutely. So in The UK, all universities, we'll start with the sort of the broad stuff. All universities utilise a company, actually a charity called UCAS, and UCAS manages every student's application to all the universities that they select. That's national and international students. Now every student can select no more than five universities in their UCAS application in any one entry year. So what do I mean by any one entry year? What I mean by that is, for example, the UCAS window for 2026 entry is going to open very shortly and it will close for Oxbridge Medical Schools and Veterinary Schools on the October 15, and for everybody else in the January 2026. Now, they have to go through that cycle and you then sit your A Levels or A Level equivalents in the summer of twenty twenty six and you have your university offers and decision making between the January and the summer of you sitting your final exams in school. Now that's one application year, So you may choose to reapply again, but then you have to do that in the following application year. So you have a maximum of five choices. Those five choices really are personal to you. We always recommend that you utilize all five choices. I have had some students in the past who have solely just wanted two universities and that was it. But you have five choices so why not use them? That choice selection really is up to you, but you have to put them in, and you also have to decide on what course you want to apply for within that university itself. So every university and every course has a very special UCAS code, that you need to reference in there. It's all listed. It's very sort of simple to use. In addition to that, every university will want what they call a personal statement from you. And as of this year, that personal statement has changed up. I'm It's sure it's changed, going changed, to be know it's. Bit
00:03:11 · Ruth Benny, Barbara Lestak
[00:03:11] S0: we'll get into some of the changes a little bit later, Barbara, because I know that lots of people are talking about that and we need to talk about that too. So that's a great overview, sort of a starting point. What was I, why do you think UCAS, why is it a good thing or is it a limitation that all students are limited to five choices only? [00:03:35] S1: No, I think it's actually a very good thing because A) we have a limited number of spaces within UK universities. What we don't want to do is sort of muddy the system almost and over complicate it. It also can, you know, too much choice can drown a student. So they, it does help them in their research in deciding about what course and what module, you know, what course and what sort of module systems are best for them and the type of teaching as well. So really five universities tend to sort of do it. I know that in The US, you know, you apply to each university individually. Sure, that's The US system. But if you imagine that student has to go through that process every single time. Here you do one application, you pick five. If of course you decide that you want to do something else or you were slightly wrong, there is a clearing system. There are other ways of going into perhaps a different university choice. If you were like, oh gosh, I made the wrong choice, what have I done? So there are ways out of it, but I think it really does help the students define exactly what they want to do. Cause it's a life changing decision.
00:03:35 · Barbara Lestak, Ruth Benny
[00:03:35] S1: No, I think it's actually a very good thing because A) we have a limited number of spaces within UK universities. What we don't want to do is sort of muddy the system almost and over complicate it. It also can, you know, too much choice can drown a student. So they, it does help them in their research in deciding about what course and what module, you know, what course and what sort of module systems are best for them and the type of teaching as well. So really five universities tend to sort of do it. I know that in The US, you know, you apply to each university individually. Sure, that's The US system. But if you imagine that student has to go through that process every single time. Here you do one application, you pick five. If of course you decide that you want to do something else or you were slightly wrong, there is a clearing system. There are other ways of going into perhaps a different university choice. If you were like, oh gosh, I made the wrong choice, what have I done? So there are ways out of it, but I think it really does help the students define exactly what they want to do. Cause it's a life changing decision. [00:04:45] S0: Okay. Okay. So you said that it opens relatively soon. I'm very familiar with the closing dates, but when does it actually open? [00:04:54] S1: Let me, I can't remember off the top of my head. [00:04:57] S0: Oh, don't worry, don't worry. But in reality, like in practice, the students are [00:05:03] S1: in
00:05:03 · Barbara Lestak, Ruth Benny
[00:05:03] S1: in [00:05:03] S0: their, and they're entering the upper sixth year or their last year of school, they're going to get quite busy with these applications quite quickly, aren't they? In the September, October?
00:05:15 · Barbara Lestak
[00:05:15] S1: Correct. Yes, absolutely. They will. And they need to really, really prepare. So if you imagine these students come in, they have their summer break, they come back to school in early September, some of them a little bit earlier, and they literally have a month to do their personal statement, to also get on top of their final year curriculum, which is even harder than the previous year, know, to take stock of all of that, get used to going back to school and making a life changing decision and writing the personal statement. So there's a lot to do, which is why we always highly recommend that your run up is at least before the summer holidays, particularly if you're just writing personal statement and you're just making your five choices. A lot of the universities do their open days at the beginning of the summer, so between sort of June and July time. Go to them if you can, they do have virtual ones. That should really be the beginning of the end of your decision making process, if that makes sense. You should have already looked at prospectuses before then and going to these open days virtual or in person is the sort of, is your final decision making. So, you're not going to go to twenty open days, but you'll probably go to three or four of the universities that you really like the look and sound of. And that should really just solidify your decision. Do you think that open days are really, I'm sure they're useful, also in
00:06:51 · Ruth Benny
[00:06:51] S0: my experience in my sort of circles, the courses speak for themselves. The brand names of the university speak for themselves. Peer pressure is the most important factor in a teenager's life in my experience. I mean, do think that, do the majority of students go to open days, do you think?