Before applying for one of our degree courses (Bachelor, Masters or PhD), please check that you have suitable qualifications for entry to the course of your choice. This is especially important if you are applying for an undergraduate course, as UCAS only permits you to apply for five programmes in any one year.
If your country or qualification is not listed, please contact the International Recruitment Team by email, telling us the name of your qualification, the subjects you have studied, the date you took the exams and the grades that you achieved. Once we have this information, we will be able to advise you on your eligibility to apply.
As well as the right academic qualifications, you need to check that you have (or are studying for) a suitable English language certificate. English language requirements for each programme are clearly stated in both the Undergraduate and the Postgraduate prospectuses. Please look at our English language requirements for further advice.
All applications for undergraduate (Bachelor) degree courses must be made via the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service - UCAS.
Information on all the undergraduate degree courses offered at Bristol can be found in our undergraduate prospectus.
The UCAS website provides useful entry profiles including information for each course offered at Bristol. These tell you what the course offers, what we look for in an application, and the kind of student who might best be suited to the course.
You should apply direct to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) for all our full-time undergraduate degree courses. UCAS is the organisation responsible for managing applications to Bachelor degree courses across the whole of the UK. The UCAS code number for the University of Bristol is B78 (BRISL).
Applications can be made from 1 September every year, for entry the following autumn. The closing date for UK and EU applicants is 15 January every year. This means that you will probably apply without knowing your final school exam results. If we want to make you an offer, it will be conditional on you achieving specified grades in your final exams. This is the same system that is used for UK applicants. If you can ask your academic referee to provide your predicted grade results, this will help process your application (this is standard practice in the UK).
All universities and colleges guarantee to consider your application if it is received at UCAS by 15 January (with the exceptions of Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Science applications). If we receive your application after this deadline, but before the final deadline of 30 June, we may consider it, but do not have to. The more popular a course is, the less likely it is that we will be able to consider late applications.
For Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Science the application deadline at UCAS is 15 October each year.
For all courses (except Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Science) you can apply to a maximum of five courses on the UCAS form. You can apply for up to four courses for Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary Science; the remaining fifth course choice should be for a similar, medical or science-related course.
You should submit your application form using the UCAS online application system called Apply. You are responsible for paying the correct application fee, for obtaining and attaching the academic reference and for sending the completed application online to UCAS.
Once submitted you will receive a welcome letter from UCAS confirming your ten digit Personal ID number, a nine digit application number, your username for Track and a list of your choices. Please supply either your application or personal ID number if you need to contact the University of Bristol for any reason.
Once you have sent your application to UCAS, the application form is then simultaneously sent to all named choices. No university is told which other universities you have applied to.
If you need to send any additional material that cannot be included on the UCAS form, please keep this to a minimum. Usually we would only accept additional references, transcripts/exam results and translations of these. You should send these directly to the Admissions Office, and not to UCAS, and quote your application number.
When we have received your application from UCAS, we will send you an acknowledgement email. You should then expect to hear from us again within six to eight weeks.
Full details on how to apply can be found on the UCAS website.
Postgraduate applications
Please consult our country specific information to help you decide if you are suitably qualified for your programme of choice.
Information on all the postgraduate degree programmes offered at Bristol can be found in our postgraduate prospectus. All programmes can now be applied for using our online application system. Please note that some postgraduate programmes at Bristol are offered on a part-time basis only. In the Postgraduate prospectus, all taught Masters programmes are described as open to international students regardless of whether they are full-time programmes. Potential applicants should be aware that part-time study is only open to international students if they already have the correct immigration permission to be in the UK. There is no student visa for part-time study in the UK.
Research Masters and PhD candidates
These programmes enable students to work on individual projects on a one-to-one basis with their supervisor. There are still significant elements of training on these programmes, but they are tailor-made for each student so there is less literature available about how the degree may be constructed. As individual research opportunities are not listed in the prospectus in the same way that taught programmes are, students are encouraged to check first by looking closely at the relevant areas of research offered at Bristol, and then to contact the appropriate member of staff before submitting an application in order to seek advice on whether a Research Masters (MRes) or PhD may be possible.
If after consulting the above web pages you still have questions about how to apply, please contact our Postgraduate Admissions Teams.
Applying with the help of a representative
The University has agreements with a number of education representatives (also known as agents) around the world who can assist you with your application. Please note that using a representative does not put your application at any advantage or disadvantage when the academic decisions are made within the School. Independent applications will be considered on an equal basis.
Please use the services of only one representative to avoid administrative complications. We also strongly advise you to work with a representative listed on our country-specific pages.
