Mar 2024 Editorial: What's Changing with UK University Applications?
Millie co-founder Ariel Lau together with counsellors from international schools in Kuala Lumpur on March 6th 2024 - discussing UCAS changes and a lot more!
Article written by Ariel Lau, Millie's Co-Founder & Global Head Counsellor
With the fast-changing nature of the global university application landscape, university guidance counsellors often have to stay on top of the latest admissions changes in order to provide our students with the most updated information on university preparation.
What is happening with the UCAS application?
In this blog article, we will cover some of the significant changes to the UK university application, including the entrance test adjustments as well as the UCAS personal statement changes to come.
UK University Entrance Exams Change
For students who are aiming for top UK universities, such as Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial etc., it’s not uncommon for them to have to complete additional entrance exams corresponding to their selected majors as part of the application process.
Starting from the 2025 admissions cycle, there will be a number of key changes concerning UK university entrance exams. Given that these world-class UK universities seem to be making efforts consolidating the entrance exams required for different majors, we think that this could be good news for some of the students!
"Given the consolidation the entrance exams required for different majors, this could be good news for students!"
BMAT (Medicine): BMAT will be phased out starting the 2025 admissions cycle. UK medical schools that were using BMAT as entrance exam will transition to UCAT instead.
ENGAA (Cambridge Engineering) and NSAA (Cambridge Natural Sciences): Both tests will be phased out starting the 2025 admissions cycle. Students who are applying for these two majors in Cambridge will be asked to sit the ESAT(Engineering and Science Admissions Test) instead.
CLT (Cambridge Law Test) - CLT will no longer be administered starting the 2025 admissions cycle and all Cambridge law applicants will be required to sit the LNAT as pre-interview admissions assessment.
UCAS Personal Statement Change
The current structure of the UCAS personal statement is an open-ended essay, capped at 4,000 characters with spaces and punctuations. With the proposed new format, students will no longer be asked to complete a detailed essay, instead, they will be answering multiple short questions as part of their UCAS application, covering the below three main content areas.
"With the new UCAS, students will no longer be asked to complete a detailed essay"
- Motivation for course: Why do you want to study the course?
- Preparedness for course: How has your learning thus far helped you to be prepared for your course?
- Preparation through other experiences: What else have you done to help yourself prepare? How and why are these experiences so useful?
Even though the format might have changed significantly, the content that students need to produce under the new short response format is still very much aligned with the current essay requirements. Hence, this change shouldn’t affect the general content directions that we suggest for our students to consider when brainstorming for their UCAS personal statements.
While it’s unclear when the new response format will be implemented, UCAS indicated that the transition might happen in the 2026 admissions cycle the earliest
To conclude…
Given all the anticipated changes in the UK admissions requirements, it is highly recommended that students should research thoroughly on their desired majors and universities to ensure that they are appropriately prepared for the admissions process ahead!
Need some help to stay up to date? Millie offers counsellor year-round support with our partner schools program. Book a call here to discuss further.