Your undergraduate degree was bags of fun. From the late nights and later mornings in first year, to actually enjoying writing your dissertation (don’t lie, you loved it!) in your final year, you loved it so much that you want delve into mysterious world of postgraduate study.
You’ve got a master (see what we did there..?) plan to make sure you can fund a postgraduate degree, given that the Student Loans Company finally put their foot down and will no longer be generously providing you with thousands of pounds to pay you tuition fees. You’ve even got ahead of the game and worked out your postgraduate accommodation. So, what’s next? Ah yes, you need to apply for a postgraduate course. “Do I need to use UCAS again?!” The short answer is yes. The long answer is… well, read on and you’ll find out exactly what is required of you.
UKPASS
UKPASS is ran by UCAS and operates as the main way to apply for postgraduate degree courses. You can search for courses to your heart’s content and take your pick from some 58,000 options. You can even narrow down your search by institution, subject area and type of study. Awesome, right?
UKPASS allows you to apply for up to ten courses. You’ll have to provide the usual personal details before telling UKPASS what course you’d like to study, and then select from a drop down list whether you’d like to study full-time or part-time and all that jazz. You’ll be informed that there is a fee to pay for using UKPASS (cheeky!) and then you’ll be asked how you intent to fund your studies, whether you’ve been convicted at any point (and no, been a ‘criminal lad’ does not count) and how you heard about the programme.
Of course, there are sections on your previous education that you need to complete. There may also be additional attachments you need to add. For example, if you wanted to study Modern British History at the University of East Anglia, you need to submit a 2,000-3,000 word historical essay that would reveal your ability to present a historical argument.
This next bit you might not like… there’s another personal statement to submit. This should address why you want to study at postgraduate level and should persuade the admissions officer that you’re the ideal candidate for a particular course.
Unlike UCAS, there’s no universal deadline with UKPASS as every course or institution will have their own deadline. Therefore you should complete the UKPASS form sooner rather than later as some deadlines may fall before others, even though they’re similar courses.
Additionally, there is no ‘results day’ equivalent either, where all postgraduate applicants will find out whether they got onto a course or not. Universities have no deadline when they need to let you know by, but if there’s a change in the status of your application, UKPASS will email you to let you know. You’ll need to confirm your place through UKPASS but following that you should deal with the university directly.
There we have it, fairly straightforward, right? UKPASS is basically your postgraduate equivalent of UCAS and applications follow a very similar process.
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