UCAS has made changes to its undergraduate reference requirements for 2024 entry.  

This guidance is designed to support you in writing an academic reference for students who are applying to Imperial. 

We use the reference as part of our holistic selection process to help us identify applicants with the potential to succeed here.

Your reference is an important part of this process. It helps our Admissions tutors to better understand whether there is a really good match between your student and the course(s) they have applied for.

It also helps them to make a better assessment of your student within the context of the overall applicant pool by learning more about their learning environment, as well as any personal achievements or mitigating factors.

As well as the general guidance from UCAS on what to include in your reference, we’ve provided more guidance below on information that our Admissions tutors would find particularly helpful in each section.

Section 1

Enter a general statement about your school, college/centre

If you are writing the reference for a student in a UK, state school, please tell us more about:

  • The context of your school/college, or centre e.g. performance, intake demographics, progression rates to higher education etc. 
  • Your portfolio of qualification provision and any restrictions on options students may have.
  • Information about your school, college or centre which may affect performance, such as significant staff changes, or damage to buildings.
  • Any policies or processes used for predicting grades (e.g. internal assessments). This is an opportunity to articulate any policy about not predicting grades for qualifications where the school or college feels the assessment method or qualification structure is not suited to predictions.
  • Factors which have affected the whole school/college (rather than the individual).

For all other schools, please use this section to tell us more about:

  • Your portfolio of qualification provision and any restrictions on options students may have.
  • Any policies or processes used for predicting grades (e.g. internal assessments). This is an opportunity to articulate any policy about not predicting grades for qualifications where the school or college feels the assessment method or qualification structure is not suited to predictions.

Section 2

If applicable, enter any information about extenuating circumstances which may have impacted the applicant’s education and achievement.

This is an optional section. If relevant, please include information that contextualises your student’s educational journey. For example: 

  • Individual circumstances e.g. disability, serious illness, bereavement, significant adverse personal circumstances (with applicant consent).
  • Context as to why there is a disparity between the grades they have achieved at GCSE level (or equivalent) and their predicted grades, where applicable at A-level (or equivalent).
  • Factors which have limited the applicant’s choice of subjects or load of study at UK Level 3 or equivalent (factors which have affected the whole centre rather than just the applicant should be included in section 1).
  • Support the university or college should consider putting in place to ensure the applicant can thrive on their course (with applicant’s consent) e.g. highlight the measures the school, college or centre put in place to ensure the student’s inclusion/experience.

For applicants with a particularly difficult educational or personal background, which may require information over and above the 4,000 character limit for references, we are happy to accept additional information via email.

To do this, please send the information to the relevant Admissions Team

If you are providing additional information via email, please state this in section 2 of the reference.

Section 3

Outline any other supportive information specific to the applicant and relevant to the course(s) applied for that you think universities/colleges should be aware of.

This section is available for you to provide a supporting statement for your student and showcase any additional information about their successes and achievements.

We will take this section into consideration when making admissions decisions.

We encourage you to use whichever format best suits the information you wish to provide, for example prose or short, clear, factual statements in bullet point format.

Examples of information to tell us here include:

  • Preparedness for study – specifically in reference to the degree course applied for.
  • Successes in subjects relevant to the course applied for.
  • Commentary on candidates learning competencies, e.g. independent learning, group interactions.
  • An additional point of validation to items mentioned in the personal statement, for example, with respect to extracurricular achievements, competitions, undertakings at school, placements, social actions or other contributions.
  • Confirmation of applicant successes and achievements – academic and non-academic.
  • How the applicant performs in the context of their cohort, and or in the experience of their referee across and beyond cohorts.
  • Contributions to the community by the student.
  • Any other comments around outstanding achievement or personal attributes.
  • Predicted grades – where these have not been provided elsewhere on the UCAS form (e.g. where qualifications are pending completion).

Character limits

You have a maximum of 4,000 characters to use across the three reference questions.

You can choose how many characters you use in each section as the character count is for the total submission.

We appreciate that the amount of content you provide in each section may vary depending on the individual applicant, but as a guide, we would typically expect you to use around or up to:

  • 1,000 characters for question 1
  • 500 characters for question 2
  • 2,500 characters for question 3

If you have any queries regarding the application process, please contact the relevant Admissions Team.