An overview for those supporting eligible applicants applying to undergraduate courses starting in 2025.
What is the free school meals fee waiver?
For the 2025 cycle, UCAS is pleased to share that we are removing the application fee for any student who is or has received UK government funded free school meals (FSM) during the last six years, up until the end of their final year at school or college.
As the rising cost-of-living continues to present challenges to everyone, particularly those suffering financial hardship, I am keen to ensure that at UCAS, we do everything we can to support students in taking their next step.
Why is UCAS waiving the fee?
As an independent charity, UCAS has an important role to play in supporting the most disadvantaged applicants to access higher education. The entry rate to higher education of applicants receiving free school meals is at its lowest level since 2019. Our aim is to open more doors to accessing higher education for disadvantaged students.
Step-by-step guide to the FSM fee waiver
Our detailed step-by-step guide will help you understand how the FSM fee waiver works.
Please share this guidance with your colleagues.
Download the guide
How will it work?
To deliver this initiative for the 2025 cycle we would appreciate your help to encourage your eligible students to declare they have been in receipt of free school meals and support the process in the adviser portal.
Eligible students will need to:
- declare they are in receipt of UK government funded free school meals in the ‘More about you’ section of the application
- choose to ‘Apply with Waiver' when they ‘Pay and Submit’ their application
For the FSM waiver to be applied we need registered centres to:
- Check your application fee payment method in ‘Centre Management’ is set to a method that activates the invoicing option.
- In the adviser portal provide agreement for those students who've shared that they have been in receipt of UK government funded free school meals in the last six years
If you would like to support your student’s declaration to receive the fee waiver, please check your fee payment options in the adviser portal:
- It needs to be set to a method that enables the invoicing option; this ensures UCAS can apply the fee waiver to eligible students, and they don’t need to pay when they submit their application. For full guidance on how using each fee payment option would work see the Adviser Guide.
- Your school/centre will not be invoiced for eligible FSM students who you provide agreement for in the adviser portal. If the application fee payment method is not reviewed to enable an invoicing option and eligible students ‘pay by card’ the fee waiver cannot be applied.
| Current application fee payment method |
Action required |
| UCAS will send your centre an invoice |
No action needs to be taken |
| All your applicants will pay online by credit or debit card |
Application fee payment method will need to be changed before 3 September 2024 when pay and submit goes live |
| Some applicants will pay online by card. UCAS will provide an invoice for remaining applicants (invoice to be paid by your centre) |
No action needs to be taken |
New adviser portal features: We’ve introduced two new features to the adviser portal to help you better support students in accessing the FSM fee waiver from UCAS – enhanced filtering options and alerts will help you identify which students may impact centre invoicing.
Adviser Guide 2025
For full guidance on how using each fee payment option would work, as well as lots of helpful advice and information about supporting and managing your students' applications, download the Adviser Guide (Free School Meal guidance can be found on pages 6 – 11).
In abolishing the application fee for students who receive free school meals, UCAS has in a single swipe stopped money being the psychological barrier for students.
We are a trust that wants to broaden our students’ horizons and open their eyes to the world of possibility. Now, instead of being able to fund just one trip to a university open day, the saving afforded to us means that we can afford to pay for two open days, giving students more opportunity to get a flavour of what life is like at different universities.
Frequently asked questions
-
Who is eligible to have the application fee waived?
For the 2025 cycle, students who are currently enrolled at school or college, and have been in receipt of UK government funded free school meals at some point during the last six years (i.e. during their secondary education) up until the end of their final year, will be eligible to have the application fee waived.
Students applying from the independent school sector can indicate their financial circumstances would have made them eligible for UK government funded free school meals in the past six years. This can be verified by teachers/advisers using confirmation through the student’s previous school or college, a letter of confirmation from the local authority, or using the Bursary Assessment Associates contextualised data service.
Students who are not currently enrolled at a school or college, but who are applying through a registered centre and can demonstrate to the centre they have been in receipt of UK government funded free school meals at some point during the last six years, are eligible to have the application fee waived.
England guidance
Scotland guidance
Northern Ireland guidance
Wales guidance
-
How is the information about free school meals used?
This information is shared (securely) with those who are responsible for supporting the student at university or college, and it is treated confidentially.
Knowing about an applicant's circumstances may also help admissions staff take their achievements into account and gain a better understanding of their achievements and potential in context. They may be able to offer additional support during their studies (e.g. through a scholarship or bursary scheme), or events or activities to help them prepare for higher education. Some may use this information to decide whether to make them a contextual offer.
The information an applicant provides in their UCAS application may also be used (anonymously) for monitoring purposes. This helps the university to inform and improve the support they provide to students in the future. The data is kept in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018: read our privacy policy.
-
Will the answers to the FSM question be verified?
For the FSM waiver to be applied to undergraduate applications, we will accept agreement from teachers/advisers via the Adviser Portal for those students who share within the application, they are or have been in receipt of FSM.
-
Why is the fee only being waived for FSM applicants – we have other applicants struggling who could benefit?
The claiming of free school meals is a rigorous and widely accepted measure of acute financial hardship. In research conducted by the Sutton Trust, the number of years that a child has been eligible for free school meals is the best available marker for childhood poverty.
It is also the only defined widening participation characteristic which directly links to the individual’s circumstances of financial disadvantage (as opposed to postcode data, family background, school type). It is also already widely used in the education and higher education sector as a critical indicator of where to target resources, such as bursaries and contextual offers, to support those from low-income households to succeed.
At this stage we are only planning to waive the fee for FSM applicants. However, we know that this move will benefit many other under-represented groups within higher education, due to the high levels of overlap with other characteristics.
The application fee is not meant to prevent anyone from applying to university. There should always be a way to cover the fee.
You could encourage your students to contact your university or college directly as they may also have schemes to pay for application fees in some circumstances.
For students in certain circumstances, there may be other sources of financial help: Learn all about filling in your UCAS application for uni
-
Will all staff be able to give agreement to the FSM question in the Portal or will it be controlled by a specific permission?
As per existing logic to application management, staff who can view applications with either the ‘approve’ or ‘send applications’ permission can also agree answer to the FSM question.
-
Why do we have to select ‘some applicants pay by card and some by invoice’? This could mean we get a lot of applicants choosing incorrect payment option when reviewing and submitting their application to our school or college?
Selecting ‘some applicants pay by card and some by invoice’ means that FSM applicants will be able to submit their application without entering card details. When the adviser agrees that a student is eligible for FSM and submits the application, UCAS will remove any invoices for those confirmed FSM students’ status and waive the application fee.
If you do not change the application fee payment method and eligible students ‘pay by card’ the fee waiver cannot be applied.
For those applicants who choose ‘pay centre’ option by mistake and submit to their school/college, there is an option for the adviser to return their application and include a message to the student to ‘pay by card’ along with any other updates to the application.
It's worth noting:
-
If an applicant chooses to pay by card, makes payment and then submits the application to the school/college, when it's returned to the applicant they don't get the option to choose a payment method again. It just keeps the card payment on there.
-
If an applicant chooses the 'apply with waiver' or ‘pay centre’ options either by mistake or is not eligible for FSM, and the application is sent to UCAS an invoice will be generated and sent to the school/college for payment.
You can find more detail on the payment process and options in the Adviser Guide.
-
What do we do if we accidentally agree that the applicant gets FSM when they don’t and send the application?
We understand introducing a new process may generate genuine mistakes despite best endeavours and intentions.
Please email reform@ucas.ac.uk if you believe a mistake has been made when agreeing that an applicant should receive the application fee waiver.
-
For students who’ve taken a gap year (or are choosing to reapply) and are applying through our centre, do we still need to agree their FSM status?
Yes. We know many centres support ex-students with their applications and to be able to support those students who have been in receipt of FSM they must link to you as a ‘full application’ as opposed to ‘reference only’. If the student shares they have been in receipt of FSM, you will need to answer in the Adviser Portal in as you would with your current cohort.
-
Rather than changing the payment option now, could we wait until we have an FSM student applying, then change to invoice and card so that we only get that one student selecting invoice?
Yes, this option comes with advantages and disadvantages.
The main advantage is you are in control of the payment options and minimise student error for most of your cohort. The main disadvantage is you need ensure you change the payment method before the student goes through the payment gateway and chooses ‘pay centre’ for us to apply the fee waiver. Once payments have been made by card it is not possible to apply the fee waiver retrospectively.
You can find more detail on the payment process and options in the Adviser Guide.
-
If an applicant starts at a school in year 12, but attended a previous school where they were in receipt of FSM, how does the current school help this student?
Your school/college must be able to agree a student has been in receipt of free school meals in order to waive the application fee.
If this information is not available through your school/college information system, the student will need to provide evidence to you. Examples of this evidence could include confirmation through their previous school or college, or a letter of confirmation from the local authority.
-
Does the FSM fee waiver apply for conservatoire applicants?
Yes – students who have been in receipt of FSM and are making a conservatoire application will be contacted directly via email with further instructions when they declare they are in receipt of free school meals in the ‘More about you’ section of the application.
Conservatoires provide performance-based higher education, including music, drama, screen and production courses – both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. You can find out more information about conservatoires here.
-
We don’t have evidence in college to show a student has been in receipt of FSM, what can we do?
The school/college must be able to agree a student has been in receipt of government funded free school meals in order to waive the application fee.
If this information is not available through your school/college information system, the student will need to provide evidence. This could include confirmation through their previous school or college or a letter of confirmation from the local authority.
-
Our local council offer universal free school meals for all secondary school students, are they eligible for the fee waiver?
No, the fee waiver is only applicable for students who have been in receipt of government funded free school meals.
Details can be found below of the eligibility criteria and how to apply for government funded free school meals:
Information for students
For more information to help your students in receipt of free school meals, including FAQs and additional support, you can share this student-facing page with the young people you're supporting through their next steps.