Admissions Next Steps:

Please refer to the ‘next steps’ email which directed you to this web page for a list of your outstanding offer conditions, then refer to the relevant section below for guidance on how to meet these. Please note that failure to meet your offer conditions prior to the course starting could lead to you losing your place or the release of financial support being delayed.

Qualifications check

If you did not provide evidence of your qualifications at a face-to-face interview or they are listed as outstanding on the email which directed you to this page, you will need to upload copies of your GCSE certificates to your Applicant Portal, and also provide your original degree certificate.

If you are an international student any outstanding qualifications will be detailed within your offer letter and will be specific to you, your qualification type, level and country of study.

How to provide your original degree certificate

It is a Department for Education (DfE) requirement that we see your original degree certificate.

Lancaster, Carlisle and Delivery Partner applicants - you will receive an email from us at the end of June asking you to post your original degree certificate to us by recorded delivery during July and August. Please contact us at pgadmissions@cumbria.ac.uk if you would rather bring your original degree certificate to campus in person. Please wait for us to contact you in June before posting your certificate - the email will contain the full postal address for your campus. All certificates will be returned in person during your first week on campus.

London applicants - you will be able to provide your original degree certificate in person to campus during August. You will receive an email from us at the end of June with details of when you can visit campus with your certificate. Please wait for us to contact you in June before attending campus with your certificate.

Please be aware that failure to provide your original certificate once we ask you to do so will prevent your access to student funding and will risk your place on the programme.

If you are an international student you are required to bring all your original academic certificates/transcripts (school/college/university) with you to the UK. These will be physically checked in person at registration.

If you are due to take a GCSE equivalency test before you start

If your course has GCSE entry requirements and you are due to sit a GCSE or equivalency exam, please contact us as soon as you have your result and upload a copy of your certificate to your Applicant Portal. Once you have uploaded the document don't forget to click 'next' to complete the upload.

School Delivery Partner Students Only

If you have provided your qualifications at interview, we have requested that schools forward these to us. However, if these remain listed as outstanding then you may wish to provide your qualifications directly to us again to ensure they are received whilst school offices are closed during the summer holidays.

What will you accept as evidence of my GCSEs?

For students who have studied inside the UK or Republic of Ireland, we can accept certificates, candidate statement of results or a signed letter on headed paper from your school or college confirming the qualifications awarded to you. We can also accept an email from your school or college sent directly to pgadmissions@cumbria.ac.uk

You will be asked to provide copies of your GCSE certificates by uploading them to your applicant portal  prior to the start of the course.

If you are an international student, we will specify to you within your offer letter the specific qualification we require to evidence GCSE equivalence. We require official transcripts and certificates issued by the relevant institution and cannot accept provisional results or letters as evidence.

All students training to teach Primary must have, and evidence, a minimum grade C/4 in GCSE English, Mathematics and Science (or recognised equivalents).

All students training to teach Secondary must have, and evidence, a minimum grade C/4 in GCSE English and Mathematics (or recognised equivalents).

It is your responsibility to provide these prior to starting your course and to check that these are acceptable. The University will accept a range of alternative qualifications to GCSE, please enquire with the Admissions office – pgadmissions@cumbria.ac.uk. Qualifications are a DfE and OFSTED requirement and are not negotiable.

NB. The University does not accept Level 2 Adult Literacy or Numeracy or Skills as equivalent to GCSE English or Maths entry requirements for ITT courses.

Please be aware that failure to provide your GCSE certificates or equivalences will prevent your access to student funding and will risk your place on the programme.

What will you accept as evidence of my degree?

It is a DfE requirement that original degree certificates must be provided.

Where this is not immediately available, you may be permitted to provisionally register to start the course using another form of degree evidence (a signed letter on headed paper from your University or tutor confirming the qualification awarded to you, or an email from your University or tutor sent directly to pgadmissions@cumbria.ac.uk) however, the official certificate must be provided as soon as available.

All degree certificates must be original.

What if I have lost my qualifications?

It is vitally important that you obtain replacements as soon as possible. If you are unable to provide evidence of qualifications which meet the entry requirements by 31 August for September start dates, or 2 January for the January start, you may not be permitted to start the course and you may lose your place. Access to bursaries and loans will be withheld until you have completed all admissions checks for your course.

If you are an international student requiring a student visa, we require evidence of your outstanding qualifications in the form of official transcripts and certificates before we can issue your CAS so you will need to contact your awarding institution as soon as possible to request a replacement. You will also be required to bring your qualifications with you to the UK so if you have lost any documents, you must obtain replacements as soon as possible.

For students who have studied inside the UK or Republic of Ireland, if you can’t find your official GCSE certificates, we can also accept a candidate statement of results or an original signed letter on headed paper from your school or college confirming the GCSEs or acceptable equivalent awarded to you. We can also accept an email from your school or college sent directly to the Admissions Office; pgadmissions@cumbria.ac.uk

If you have lost your GCSE certificates you must take steps to obtain replacements without delay as these can take several weeks to arrive. Here are links to the most common examination board websites from whom you can order replacements:

Information on obtaining replacement certificates can be found on the GOV.UK website.

What if I am still studying?

Once you have received official notification of your result you need to provide evidence no later than 31 August for September courses, and 2 January for January courses.

If you are graduating in the summer before a course that starts in September

We must see your original degree certificate to comply with DfE regulations. If you receive your degree certificate in July or August, you will be able to post it to us by recorded delivery/ provide it in person - please see information above on this page for further information about how to do this.

In the meantime, until you receive your official certificate, we can accept electronic PDF copies of your degree/ transcript attached to an accompanying email from your university. The email and attachment must either come to us directly from your university, or you can forward it to us, but the email must display the email details of your awarding institution.

In the short term, we can also accept an email without a PDF certificate attachment directly from your university to confirm your degree result; please ask your university to email pgadmissions@cumbria.ac.uk

These interim options may enable us to provisionally register you on the course until you receive your official certificate, however you must contact pgadmissions@cumbria.ac.uk as soon as you receive your official degree certificate so that we can arrange for you to provide the original to the Admissions office or your Delivery Partner alliance.

If you are an international student, we require official transcripts and certificates issued by the relevant institution and cannot accept provisional results or letters from awarding institutions as evidence. It is crucial that you have completed your course and obtained your official academic documents well in advance of our CAS deadlines to allow sufficient time for you to complete the CAS application process.

Please be aware that failure to provide your degree certificate will risk your continued access to funding and your place on the programme.

I need to do a GCSE Equivalency Test

Acceptable GCSE equivalency test providers are:

If you are due to take a GCSE Equivalency Test

How can I provide documents?

Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks the criminal records background of people who wish to work with children and vulnerable groups.

If you are not already resident in the UK and will be joining us on a student visa, you will not be able to start your DBS or complete your right to work check until you arrive in the UK.

Your course requires a DBS clearance for you to work with vulnerable groups, please see our DBS information page for further information. You will receive an email with further instructions on starting your DBS check, approximately 3 months before your course start date.

As part of the DBS process, you will need to complete a Right to Work check.

The University has a responsibility to ensure that every student studying at the institution on a course that requires a DBS check, has the right to work in the UK.

Please Note: we will contact you about your Right to Work check when we get in touch with you about your DBS.

Medical Clearance

Once you have accepted your place, you will be required to undertake a health assessment. This will be via an on-line platform provided by our appointed Occupational Health provider, Industrial Diagnostics Company Limited (Latus Group).

Guidance on how to complete this admission check can be found on our medical clearance information pages.

You will receive an email with further instructions on starting your medical check approximately 3 months before your course start date, this will come from no-reply@ohims.co.uk

Course welcome information

Delivery Partner: Early course welcome information for your course including term dates, provisional timetables, reading lists and any pre-course preparation will be provided by your alliance.

University Based PGCE: Early course welcome information for your course including term dates, provisional timetables, reading lists and any pre-course preparation will be available later in the summer. We will send you an email to let you know when this is available.

Finance information

Money Advisors from our Student Services team will be available to help with finance and funding enquiries. Further information about tuition fees for your course and funding support available is available on the Student Finance web pages.

PGCE applicants may be eligible for a Department for Education (DfE) bursary. Once you have provided evidence of your degree qualifications, Admissions will email you if you are eligible for the bursary with confirmation of your bursary award and guidance on what you need to do to ensure that the bursary is paid. Emails will start to be sent from May onwards. You do not need to contact us to apply for the bursary.

Accommodation information

Further information about accommodation options in Lancaster and Carlisle is available on the accommodation web pages. A link to the accommodation application forms is sent automatically to applicants that accept the University of Cumbria as their firm choice.

Placement information

Teacher training students will be contacted following registration to begin making arrangements for school placements.

For more placement information please click here.

International students

We are pleased you have accepted your place at the University of Cumbria. We would like to make your transition as smooth as possible by helping where we can.

If you require a student route visa to study in the UK, you need to ensure you meet any outstanding conditions of offer as detailed within your offer letter. You can also begin completion of your CAS Shield profile. CAS Shield is the platform we use to assess your application for a CAS and monitor your visa and arrival status. You will need to answer a questionnaire and complete each section as prompted. Should you have any queries at this stage about the CAS process, please use the CAS Shield messaging service so that our compliance team can respond to you promptly. Please spend some time reviewing our Visa & Immigration pages.

Once your CAS has been issued, you will receive this via email.

The original copies of all qualifications you have used to gain entry to your course must be brought with you to the UK, for us to see at your International Registration event. For any CAS or Visa queries, please use the messaging feature within CAS Shield or email UKVICompliance@cumbria.ac.uk

For any queries regarding your outstanding conditions or queries relating to your application, please email pgadmissions@cumbria.ac.uk