Once you’ve chosen where you want to go to university and what you’d like to study, you can get started on your Ucas application.
Here's what you need to do...and when.
What’s the deadline for submitting your university application?
For most undergraduate courses starting in 2026, you’ll need to get your application in by 6pm GMT on 14 January 2026.
Every application received by this date will have equal consideration, whether it's received months early or just squeezes in before the deadline hits.
There is a big exception to this. Anyone applying to the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge and most courses in medicine, veterinary medicine/science and dentistry will have had an earlier deadline. For 2026 entry, this application deadline is 15 October 2025.
Can you still apply to university if you miss the 14 January deadline?
If you miss the 14 January deadline you can still apply – the only difference will be that universities and colleges don’t have to consider your application if, for example, they’ve already got plenty of great applicants for their course.
"Don’t panic," says Craig Dove, student recruitment manager at the University of Sussex. "The deadline in January is an equal consideration deadline (ECD), which means students can still apply to go to university for that year, but students could miss out if they apply after this deadline, as courses can close if they are fully subscribed.
"So, students might have less choice by applying after the ECD, but there will still be plenty of options."
If you do miss the January deadline, it’s always worth speaking to your choice of universities before submitting to check they still have spaces available on your course.
Here’s the full list of Ucas deadlines and key application dates.
Is there a fee for submitting a university application?
For 2026 entry, you’ll pay an application fee of £28.95. It's the same amount whether you're applying to one course or multiple.
Your school or college might handle the payment on your behalf, in which case they’ll let you know if and when you need to pay them first. They might also ask you to pay Ucas directly yourself instead, which you’d need to do before your reference is added.
If it’s going to be tricky for you to pay the fee, speak to your school or college as they may be able to help out, either by paying it for you or pointing you in the direction of relevant schemes that could help cover the cost.
What will the university application involve?
Once you’ve decided where you want to apply and which course you’d like to take, you can start your application by registering with Ucas Hub.
As well as making your application within the Hub, you can use it to organise everything else related to your application. You'll be able to save notes, search courses, build your personal statement and use a tariff calculator to check whether your Ucas points meet entry requirements.
You'll also use the Hub to track your offers and accept or decline places.
You won’t need to fill in the application all at once – you can make a start and save as you go, before logging out and signing back in whenever you like.
Once you've finished each section, mark it as complete at the bottom of the page.
You’ll need to fill in your personal details, including your education history and all your qualifications, whether you have your exam results already or not.
Writing your personal statement
Next comes your personal statement – this is your opportunity to show what makes you a great applicant. It could end up being a deciding factor for universities who are struggling to choose between candidates, so it’s a really important part of your application.
In your personal statement, you will answer three questions:
1: Why do you want to study this course or subject?
2: How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
3: What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?
In your answers, you should cover things like why you want to take that particular course, anything you’ve done outside of college that’s relevant to your application and any skills or qualities you have that you think would make you a good fit for the subject.
You can find lots more tips for writing your personal statement here.
Once you’ve finished writing your application and personal statement, it’s worth reading it through a couple of times to check for any mistakes – and getting someone else, like a parent or teacher, to take a look as well.
Adding your choices
You’ll be able to pick up to five courses to apply to – you won’t have to choose an order of preference yet and the universities won’t be able to see where else you’ve applied until after you’ve replied to your offers.
Click on the choices section and enter the universities and courses you've decided to apply to. Once you've added them all, click on the 'confirm choices' button on the bottom left to mark the section as complete.
Your application will be linked to your college, so if your referee is one of your teachers they’ll enter their reference into your application and then send the whole thing off to Ucas.
You won’t be able to see the reference, so you don’t need to worry about checking through that part of your application.
Learn more about how to get the Ucas reference you want from this article.
When will you hear back from universities with their decisions?
This will vary depending on the university, so don’t panic if it feels like all your friends are hearing back before you!
If you submit your application by 14 January 2026, you will hear back by 13 May 2026 at the very latest.
Make sure your contact details are up-to-date on Ucas Hub, so that any contact from either Ucas or universities gets through to you OK.
You can find more detail about when you’ll hear back from the universities you’ve applied to here.
Can you apply directly to a university without involving Ucas?
You can make a direct application to some universities without applying through Ucas, but not all universities allow this.
This kind of application is called a ‘record of prior acceptance’, and you’ll need to already have your results to be able to use this route.
You should get in touch with the university’s admissions department to ask if they would accept your direct application, and to find out how the process would work. It’s worth doing this as early as you can.
They’ll probably ask you to send them your personal details, including qualifications and education history, and you may have to write a personal statement too.
If you are able to apply directly and your application is successful, the university will contact Ucas on your behalf to confirm your place.
Before you decide to go down this route, bear in mind that a potential disadvantage of making a direct application is that you won’t have any insurance choices to fall back on.
You can also visit The Student Room's applications, Clearing and Ucas forum to see what other students are saying about writing their uni applications.
