PRE-SESSIONAL ENGLISH & STUDY SKILLS

Applications via UCAS

Most full-time and sandwich first degrees, extended degrees, DipHE and HND courses require that application is made through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) Clearing House.

If you are at school or college, staff there will advise you on how to apply. If you are not at school or college, you can apply using the UCAS secure, web-based online application system ucasapply.

Applicants apply via UCAS apply wherever there is access to the internet, and full instructions and an online help facility is available. Application details can be checked and printed at any time, text for personal statements and references can be copied and pasted into applications from a word processing package, and applications can normally be processed by the relevant Clearing House within one working day once submitted. More details on apply can be found on the UCAS website at www.ucas.com.

• The UCAS institution code for Northumbria University is NORTH N77

If you wish to defer your entry, you should ensure you indicate this in section 3i of the application form. Full details of application deadlines and the application fee can be found on the UCAS website. Please note, however, we are unable to consider applications for deferred entry to our Teacher Training, Nursing, Midwifery and Operating Department Practice programmes.

Equal consideration is given to all applications received at UCAS by 6.00pm on 15 January. Details of all UCAS deadlines can be found on the UCAS website www.ucas.com.

UCAS will accept applications up to 30 June, but we can only consider these if there are still vacancies in relevant subjects. You are advised to check with the University before applying for popular courses which may already be full. Candidates applying for any courses after early September must follow the UCAS Late Registration Procedure, and we will provide the appropriate form.

When we receive your application it will be forwarded to the Admissions Tutor who will consider your application in accordance with the University’s Admissions Policy.

Most subject areas do not require applicants to attend an interview as part of the selection procedure. However, if the standard procedure is to interview candidates, this is specified in the degree programme entrance requirements. Some courses, such as Health, Social Work and Teacher Training, require specific checks or requirements to be put in place during the normal selection process. These are detailed on the individual course details pages.

Fairness and Transparency

The University is committed to a system of admissions that ensures fairness, transparency and equal opportunities within the legal framework of the UK and best practice. All reasonable effort will be made to ensure that no prospective or existing student is unreasonably treated less favourably on the grounds of age, race, colour, nationality, ethnic origin, creed, disability, sexual orientation, gender, marital or parental/carer status, political belief or social or economic class, or any other type of discrimination.

What Happens Next

You will receive one of the following from UCAS or our Admissions Office:

• Conditional offer which depends on you achieving certain grades from forthcoming examinations, completing relevant checks, or other requirements prior to entry. You may be asked to send us a copy of your certificates/qualifications once these have been received to enable us to confirm your offer. Not all examination results are sent to Universities via UCAS.
• Unconditional offer if you have already satisfied entry requirements.
• Reject your application.

Tuition Fee Assessment

Tuition fees are set at different levels for Home/EU and International Students. Before you begin your course the University must establish your tuition fee status. In many cases, the University will be able to make this assessment without requiring any additional information.

Guidance can be found on the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) website www.ukcisa.org.uk to help you understand how Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) make an assessment on your fee status.

Interviews

Applicants who may not have the standard entry qualifications are welcome to apply and may be interviewed. Some courses will interview as part of the selection process. This applies particularly to courses in art and design, teaching and health.

Health Screening

Applicants for Nursing, Midwifery, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Primary (Early Years) and Social Work will be required to complete a health questionnaire, and you may be required to attend a doctor or nurse assessment at the University Health Centre.

Prior to beginning your programme, all applicants to Nursing, Midwifery, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy are advised to start a course of Hepatitis B vaccinations, available from your own GP. In addition, Midwifery applicants must provide evidence before they commence training that they are immune to Hepatitis B or have Hepatitis B non-carried status.

Applicants to these courses who have had contact with MRSA in the previous 6 months may be asked to provide evidence that they are not colonised by submitting negative swabs results prior to commencement of training. Alternatively, you may be screened on commencement of the programme.

All applicants will receive vaccination screening at the University Health Centre on commencement of their programme.

Disclosure of Criminal Background

To help the University reduce the risk of harm or injury to any member of its community caused by the criminal behaviour of other students, it must know about any relevant criminal convictions an applicant has.

Relevant criminal convictions are only those convictions for offences against the person, whether of a violent or sexual nature, and convictions for offences involving unlawfully supplying controlled drugs or substances where the conviction concerns commercial drug dealing or trafficking. Convictions that are spent (as defined by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974) are not considered to be relevant and you should not reveal them - unless you are applying for one of the courses outlined within the following paragraph.

If you are applying for courses in teaching, health, social work and courses involving work with children or vulnerable adults, you must complete the section of your UCAS application form entitled ‘Criminal Convictions’. You must disclose anycriminal convictions, including spent sentences and cautions (including verbal cautions) and bindover orders. Further information on how to complete this section is available from the UCAS booklet ‘How to Apply’. For these courses, applicants are required to undergo police clearance for entry and will need to complete a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) enhanced disclosure form. 

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) helps employers make safer recruitment decisions and prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups, including children. It replaces the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). Access to the DBS checking service is only available to registered employers who are entitled by law to ask an individual to reveal their full criminal history, including spent convictions - also known as asking 'an exempted question'. The University is such a 'registered employer' and will send you the appropriate documents to fill in if you are offered a place in the course.

If you are convicted of a relevant criminal offence after you have applied, you must tell UCAS and the University. Do not send details of the offence; simply tell UCAS and the University that you have a relevant criminal conviction. You may then be asked to supply more details.

Anti-fraud Checks

Please note that both UCAS and the University follow anti-fraud procedures to detect and prevent fraudulent applications. If it is found that an applicant supplies a fraudulent application then it will be withdrawn.

Plagiarism

Applicants suspected of providing, or found to have provided, false information will be referred to UCAS if their application was made via UCAS. The same is true for applicants who are suspected of omitting, or found to have omitted, information that they are required to disclose according to UCAS regulations. Applications identified by UCAS’s Similarity Detection software to contain plagiarised material will be considered on an individual basis by Admissions Staff, taking into account the nature, relevance and importance of the plagiarism. The University reserves the right to cancel an application or withdraw any offer made if it is found that an application contains false, plagiarised or misleading information.

Extra

The Extra process enables applicants who have not been offered a place, or have declined all offers received, can use EXTRA to apply for other courses that still have vacancies before Clearing starts. The Extra process normally operates from late February until the end of June and Applicants should use the Course Search facility at UCAS to find which courses have vacancies.

Clearing

If you have not succeeded in gaining a place at your firm or insurance university, UCAS will send you details about Clearing, the procedure which matches course vacancies with students who do not have a university place. Information about degree vacancies at Northumbria is published in the national press; and you can also find information on our dedicated Clearing web pages during this period. We operate a Helpline - 0191 40 60 901 - throughout the Clearing period for enquiries about course vacancies.

Adjustment
If an applicant has both met and exceeded the conditions of their firmly accepted offer, they will have up to five calendar days from the time their place was confirmed (or A level results day, whichever is the later) to research places more appropriate to their performance. Applicants will have to nominate themselves for this system, and their eligibility will be confirmed by the institution they apply to adjust to.

Going to University from Care
Northumbria University is proud of its work in widening participation of young people and adults to university. We have recently been successful in being awarded the Frank Buttle Trust Quality Mark for Care Leavers in Higher Education. This mark was created to recognise institutions who go that extra mile to support students who have been in public care. To find out more, visit our Going to University from Care web page.

Northumbria welcomes enquiries and applications from disabled students whether disability is due to mobility or sensory impairment, specific learning difficulties, mental health issues or a medical condition. Applications from disabled students are processed in the usual way, but applicants should declare their disability at the application stage so that the University can contact them to assess how to meet any support needs they may have. Disabled applicants may be invited to visit the University so that this can be done in person.

To find out more contact:
Disability Support Team
Tel +44 (0)191 227 3849 or
Minicom +44 (0)191 222 1051

The University has a thriving overseas community and applications from International students are welcome. Advice on the suitability of overseas qualifications is available from:

International Office
Northumbria University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8ST
UK
Email: international@northumbria.ac.uk
Tel +44 (0)191 227 4274
Fax +44 (0)191 261 1264

(However, if you have already applied to Northumbria and have a query, please contact internationaladmissions@northumbria.ac.uk or telephone 00 44 191 243 7906)