Applying to university: a calendar for parents of Years 12 and 13

The dates in brackets are the ones given for 2027 entry, which is the year your child applies in if they are in Year 13 now. For a child in Year 12 the pattern is the same a year later, and each test and university publishes its new dates through the year, so check the pages under "Where to check" before relying on one. The UCAS timeline sets out the same year step by step from your child’s side.

The spring and summer of Year 12 are for working out which courses to apply for. Each course page says which A levels and grades it asks for and whether there is an admissions test, and it is worth checking those against the subjects your child is taking now rather than in September. Most open days are in the summer and early autumn, and the open days guide has what to ask at one. UCAS opens applications for the following year in mid May (12 May 2026 for 2027 entry), so the personal statement can be started over the summer.

Admissions tests are booked well before they are sat. The UCAT, for medicine and dentistry, is sat in the summer before Year 13 (13 July to 24 September 2026; UCAT says the next dates will be out by February 2027). Booking for the ESAT, TMUA and TARA ran from 20 July to 28 September 2026 for the tests in October, and LNAT applicants to Oxford or Cambridge had to book between 1 August and 15 September 2026. The admissions tests guide says which course asks for which test.

How you can help: book open days early and plan the travel, and put every test’s booking deadline in a family calendar, since each comes weeks before the test itself. The tests charge a fee, and UAT-UK and the UCAT both run bursary schemes with their own earlier deadlines.

Completed applications can be sent to UCAS from early September (1 September 2026). The school adds a reference and predicted grades before sending, so it sets its own deadline, usually some weeks before UCAS’s. For Oxford, Cambridge and most medicine, dentistry and veterinary courses the deadline is 15 October at 6pm UK time, and Cambridge applicants also fill in My Cambridge Application, by 22 October 2026. The ESAT, TMUA and TARA were sat between 12 and 16 October 2026, and LNAT applicants to Oxford and Cambridge had to sit it by 15 October.

How you can help: ask the school for its internal deadline in September, read the personal statement if your child wants a second reader (asking what a vague sentence means helps more than rewriting it, and the words must stay theirs), and on a test day make sure the test centre’s address and the identity document it asks for are sorted the night before.

Results of the ESAT, TMUA and TARA come out in mid November (16 November 2026). Cambridge sends interview invitations in November and holds most college interviews in the first three weeks of December, and Oxford interviews online in December. Medicine and some other courses at other universities interview over the winter and spring. The UCAS deadline for most other courses is in mid January (13 January 2027 at 6pm UK time), and LNAT applicants to most other universities sit it by 25 January 2027. Cambridge tells applicants interviewed in the main round on 27 January 2027, and Oxford also sends its decisions in January.

How you can help: for an online interview, a quiet room and a connection that has been tried on a video call beforehand; for any interview, a few conversations about the subject at the kitchen table do more than learnt answers. Many schools hold Year 13 mocks in January, the same weeks as the last deadline and the first decisions, so it helps to plan the month together. The interviews guide covers what interviews are like.

Decisions arrive through UCAS over the winter and spring. Once they are all in, your child chooses a firm and an insurance choice by a reply date that depends on when the last decision arrived, which the guide to replying to offers explains. An applicant with five choices used and no offers can apply to one more course at a time through Extra (25 February to 1 July 2027). Applications received by 30 June are sent to universities, and Clearing opens in early July (2 July 2027).

The A level exams run from mid May to late June, and A level results come out on 12 August 2027, when UCAS shows whether each place is confirmed. If a place is not confirmed, or your child does better than expected, the Clearing guide says what to do.

How you can help: talk through the insurance choice (usually an offer asking for lower grades than the firm one), look at student finance in the spring rather than after results, since GOV.UK says an application takes weeks to process, and be around on results morning with a phone charged, in case a call to a university is needed.