Skip navigation

Latest from the blogs

About The Care Leaver Covenant

Thu 4 July 2024 - 10:11

By UCAS in UCAS advice

The Care Leaver Covenant is a national inclusion programme for care leavers between the age of 16-25 in England. The Covenant is a promise made by the private, public and voluntary sectors to provide support for care leavers through 5 key areas: independent living; education, employment and training; safety and security, mental and physical health and finance.

The Covenant team works with organisations such as John Lewis, Amazon, Barnardo’s, Metro Bank and many others to find (or in some cases develop) and promote a variety of opportunities direct to the care leaving community.

These opportunities could take the shape of internships and employment, work experience or taster days, specialist bank accounts and access to employment support or CV workshops, for example. The Covenant may also be a resource to direct someone to an independent...

Key things for care experienced students to consider when choosing a university or college

Thu 17 November 2022 - 09:17

By UCAS in UCAS advice

If you are care experienced and looking to apply to higher education, there are some key things to consider when choosing your university or college. 

Does the institution have information on the support it provides for care experienced students on its website?  This should include details of a designated person, or team, who are available to guide you and help with the transition to university.   Will you receive any additional financial support?  This might be a specific bursary or priority access to other funding.  What about other services such as study skills or support for mental health and well-being?  If you are planning to move, will you be able to stay in university accommodation all year round or will other support be available to help you find a good place to live?  As well as the information available on UCAS, you can find details of many...

Tick the Box – The Fostering Network

Mon 18 October 2021 - 10:34

By Eve at The Fostering Network in UCAS advice

Our Tick the Box campaign is a week of exciting online activity, taking part in Care Leavers Week, from 25 to 29 October 2021. 

The campaign aims to encourage care experienced students to tick the box on their UCAS applications to say they have spent time in care when applying to higher education. By ticking the box, the colleges and universities students are applying to become aware that they are in care, or have spent time in care, ensuring they can get access to the support they are entitled to. 

The week is all about raising awareness, but also celebrating the educational achievements of care experienced people, sharing their stories and the support they received from sharing their circumstances with the university or college - and the impact this had. Overall, we want to raise the aspirations of care experienced people to show that anything and everything is possible.

Why raise awareness?
The Fostering Network believes...

Why the experience of LGBT+ students in education is important

Thu 30 September 2021 - 09:03

By Clare Marchant in UCAS advice

By Clare Marchant, Chief Executive, UCAS

Arriving at your university campus for the first time is an exciting and nervous time for anyone and everyone, worth remembering as you meet new faces and explore new places. 

You may be arriving in a new town or city, and you may be far from home, but new starts often bring with them new opportunities. As you begin to live independently, maybe for the first time, this chance to be, and discover, yourself is an exhilarating prospect. In fact, it is one of the reasons that higher education continues to be an attractive route for students year upon year, and a truly transformational experience whether you are due to start an undergraduate course, apprenticeship or training.

Here in the UK, we are fortunate to have many incredible universities, colleges and apprenticeship providers to choose from, but we should also be grateful to live in a liberal society, as even today, many do not. Individuals are...

My Clearing Journey

Tue 14 January 2025 - 15:28

By UCAS in UCAS advice

A–level results day was one of my worst days by far. Although I have come to terms with it now, it’s never fun missing out on the grades you have worked so hard for.

When I received my grades, I thought it was all over. I thought that I was never going to be able to go to university and study for a degree that I would truly enjoy. This is when I decided to take a step back with a gap year to study for re-takes.

Exams were just around the corner and preparation had been going well, but that’s when the world got put on pause. The pandemic changed everything - I wasn’t able to re-take my exams, nor was I able to submit my predicted grades. The chances of studying that year were getting slimmer and slimmer, and I definitely didn’t want to take another year off.

That’s when I turned to UCAS and Clearing. I managed to find various courses and universities that were willing...

Jamal's story

Wed 9 June 2021 - 14:40

By Refugee Education UK in UCAS advice


Jamal and his siblings were the first in their family to finish school due, in no small part, to their mother’s belief in the transformative power of education. Jamal thrived in his studies, excelling particularly at science.

From a young age, Jamal was acutely aware of the lack of healthcare in his home country. When this absence of medical help led to the premature death of his pregnant aunt, he became more determined than ever to become a doctor. Winning a scholarship to study medicine put this dream within his grasp.

But, in his first term at university, Jamal’s home country descended into civil war. He was forced to abandon his studies, return to his family and ultimately flee the country. Following uncertainty and trauma in a neighbouring country in the region, 22 year old Jamal arrived in the UK by himself and claimed asylum.

As soon as he was granted refugee status, Jamal made contact with every medical school he could think of. How, he asked...

Start to Success - a project to support student mental health and wellbeing

Mon 14 June 2021 - 10:54

By UCAS in UCAS advice

Start to Success - a project to support student mental health and wellbeing during transition: A case study and reflections from Laura Kendall (FE Liaison and Transitions Officer)

 

Start to Success is a student mental health project supporting student transitions into, through, and out of university. I work collaboratively with Keele and Staffordshire Universities to develop a whole community approach to supporting student mental health and wellbeing – in partnership with the region’s colleges, local authorities, police and NHS providers, who come together with a common purpose, to remove barriers, improve support and services, and enable student success.

As part of my role, I have developed a toolkit to support successful transitions into higher education (HE), including...

What happens when you share a mental health condition in the UCAS application? A case study from the University of Warwick

Thu 1 September 2022 - 14:32

By Amanda Bishop in UCAS advice

There is often a misconception that by declaring a disability or mental health condition, challenge or disorder, an application to a university may be looked at differently or unfavourably, but it is important to note that this is not the case.

When an application to the University of Warwick is received, it is looked at purely based on the academic elements, such as predicted and achieved grades, personal statements and teacher references, and also anything extra sent in, such as our Warwick AWARDS form. Any disability or mental health condition, challenge or disorder declared through UCAS does not impact on our academic assessment of the application form. At offer stage, the Disability Team makes contact with...

Working together we can provide the guiding light of information and advice that leaves no student in the dark

Tue 4 March 2025 - 11:28

By Clare Marchant, Chief Executive, UCAS in UCAS advice

Access to careers information and guidance on pathways to higher education should never be reserved for those ‘in the know.’

It is UCAS’ ambition to be the ’go to’ place for post-secondary education, independent, trusted information and advice, levelling the playing field for all those that are interested in staying in education or training after school or college at the age of 18. The choices students are faced with are vast, so personalised support to help them navigate is vital to enable every student to have equal opportunity to make the right choices for them.

But if we place ourselves in the shoes of students, the landscape is uneven and difficult to charter.

Our new report ‘Where next?’, published today (25 March), reveals that two in five students say that had they been provided with better information and advice they would have made better decisions in school. One in five students told us that they felt that a door had been closed to them,...

12 months of social distancing, a year of distant social.

Tue 18 June 2024 - 11:40

By Courteney Sheppard in UCAS advice

Generation iPhone, Millennials, Gen Z, Covid-cohort – all names synonymous with the ‘younger’ generation who are intrinsically embedded in the culture of social media.

When Apple released their first iPhone in 2007, it was a true revolution in every sense of the word. It changed the way that society consumed information, but even in its innovation none of us envisioned how powerful the smartphone would become, and chances are we are still in the infancy of this technology.

With all of this connectivity comes myriad opportunities to digitally connect with others, and many of us can raise a guilty hand and admit we do this too much and too often. But it’s the Gen Z cohort which has generated the ability to rapidly assimilate vast amounts of data, and make decisions in an instant. Their brains are more computer-like than any before them.

Trust vs Tribe

It is well documented that Facebook is seeing a continuous demise in usership in...

Pages

Sponsored articles
UCAS Media Service