UCAS Reference Letter 2023

UCAS Reference Letter In The 2024 Intake

When it comes to your UCAS application, you’re responsible for writing every part of the admission except for one document - the UCAS references.

Your UCAS reference letter can make or break your application in a lot of situations because it helps the admissions team get a clear understanding of you as told by someone else. You can’t easily lie or boast in a UCAS reference letter - some applicants have discovered their application contrasts with the words written by a teacher or mentor upon initial request.

Regardless, the UCAS application demands a reference, so you’ll need to get a trusted adult to submit a reference for you. Let’s take a look at what you need to know.

What is a UCAS Reference?

So, the letter is used a lot by the admissions team to get a proper understanding of who you are.

The letter will be written by your reference. This is usually your teacher or mentor - someone who’s worked with you will also suffice for mature students.

However, the purpose of the letter is to outline who you are in the eyes of someone else. Understandably, you’ll struggle to deliver an accurate assessment of yourself in most cases. This isn’t the case for someone else.

You won’t have any control over the contents of your letter. It’s not like your personal statement in that sense - you don’t get to write it or even say what goes into it besides offering up some context. It will offer up information like your predicted grades. 

What to Look For in a Referee

If you’re submitting a university application, then you should try and choose an individual who knows you well in either a professional or academic context. It doesn’t have to be your college lecturer or tutor - older students apply all the time and need a reference.

Your reference should therefore work with the contents of your UCAS personal statement in regard to the way it’s written. Your referee will need to know what you’ve studied, what you’re applying for, and the contents of your statement because the reference letter should use it as a basis for what to say.

This letter is your place for conveying your skills and strengths. They should talk about how they believe you’re the right fit for the courses and what you can offer.

How to Choose the Right Person For Your Reference

You need to pick the right person for your reference letter. You can’t choose a family member or friend to write it for you. It needs to be someone who knows you academically or professionally, so the letter has some integrity. Let’s take a look at how to get the right letter written:

Pick Someone You Trust

  • The best thing you can do is pick someone to write your reference who knows you well enough to deliver an honest assessment of what you’re capable of.

  • Your assessment should be an accurate reflection of who you are, so whoever writes it needs to know you. This means a teacher or manager that you’ve worked closely with.

Give Them Plenty of Writing Time

  • If you want somebody to write your reference for you, you need to give them plenty of time to do it. Don’t spring the request on somebody at the last minute because that’s not fair.

  • Instead, you should give them enough time to create a statement. This gives you time to check the reference and make sure that it’s appropriate for your application.

Talk To Your Referee

  • During the latter writing process, you need to talk to your referee to make sure that you are both on the same page about the reference.

  • It’s important to work closely with them to guarantee that when they do create your reference, it’s accurate.

  • As we previously said, you need to think of the reference as an extension of your personal statement. 

  • Therefore, you should probably have written a draft version of that, so the basic facts can be communicated to your referee.

Is There a Reference Word Count Limit?

There is no word count limit for your reference; instead, the restriction your face is the amount of space available. 

You only have 4000 characters for reference, which is the same as a statement. Therefore, anything that your referee writes needs to fit in that space.

If you’re an international student, you need to have your reference written in English. As the UCAS reference for international students is often a big part of their application, you need to get it checked professionally if you and your referee aren’t confident in writing. 

Is There a Reference Deadline?

The UCAS reference deadline 2023 for references to be written is the same as if you were just submitting an application. If you are trying to study dentistry, medicine, or veterinary science, or you are attempting to apply to Oxford and Cambridge, then your UCAS deadline is in October. Any other type of application has the normal deadline in January.

How Do Universities Use References?

The reference that you obtain and submit to the university will be a reflection of who you are as a learner, and universities will use this as an opportunity to find out more about you and make a decision as to whether or not you will be suitable for the course.

The ideal reference will contain information about you as a learner. It will talk about your strengths and weaknesses, what you excel at, and what you bring to a classroom environment. It should match up with the contents of your personal statement, so some coordination between you and your referee is necessary.

Final Notes For Referees

If your referee is not a teacher, then they may not know how to write a reference, and there are certain things you should communicate to them to make sure that your reference is acceptable. This is often true for a UCAS reference for independent applicants. 

Anything they write should be honest and professional. There should be no copy and pasting of templates or reference PDFs that they may find on the Internet. There should be no obvious exaggeration of your ability. It should be a realistic, professional interpretation of your capacity to both learn as well as contribute meaningfully to an education setting.

It's worth noting they can talk about any relevant extenuating circumstances that would otherwise impact your application, like COVID-19.

As we said, this is the one part of your application you don’t have control over, so you need to pick somebody you trust. It will make a big difference. If you’re not sure to what extent you can be involved, check the UCAS privacy policy.