Contextual admissions policy

Check if you're eligible

To qualify for a contextual offer, you must have Home/UK fee status and your most recent or current school is a state school.

One of the following must also apply:

• You live in an area where people are less likely to go to university – check your postcode below
• You have taken part in a summer school with Sutton Trust, UNIQ, Realising Opportunities or Nottingham Potential
• You have refugee status from the Home Office
• You have spent more than three months in care – in this situation, you do not need to have attended a state school

Postcode checker 

Type in your home postcode – for example, NG7 2NR. 

Postcode eligibility is defined by national measures of participation in higher education, which are subject to change. The data within this postcode checker was last updated in September 2020.

The university will only take into account postcodes that are identified as eligible at the time of making an offer to study one of our courses.

 Interviews and tests

Some courses include an interview or test as part of the entry requirements. You will need to pass this before we can make you a contextual offer.

Our admissions staff know that applicants have different access to opportunities and support. They will consider this when assessing your application, qualifications, tests and interviews.

Specific courses

Medicine

We make contextual offers for our five-year medicine courses – A100 and A10L. This offer will be conditional on you making Nottingham your firm choice.

If you won’t meet the entry requirements for the five-year courses, you can apply for our six-year foundation options – A108 and A18L. These courses are only open to applicants who meet the contextual admissions criteria detailed above. Your offer will be made using our standard entry requirements (BBC).

Physiotherapy

You will need to make Nottingham your firm choice to qualify for a contextual offer.

Veterinary medicine

We are unable to make offers below our standard entry requirements. Your contextual offer will be more flexible on the specific subject grades.

Check if you're eligible

As well meeting the criteria for a contextual offer, to qualify for an enhanced contextual offer you must have completed one of the following: 

• the Realising Opportunities Programme at any university
• a University of Nottingham Widening Participation Summer School (either via the Sutton Trust or advertised as Nottingham Potential)
• the Sutton Trust Pathways to Law at the University of Nottingham
• the Sutton Trust Pathways to Medicine at the University of Nottingham
• the Sutton Trust Pathways to STEM at the University of Nottingham.

Exceptions for specific courses 

For undergraduate courses with entry requirements of BBB, the lowest enhanced contextual offer we would make is BBC. 

For 2021 entry, enhanced contextual offers will not be made for Veterinary Medicine, Accountancy - Flying Start or foundation courses. 

For 2022 entry, enhanced contextual offers will not be made for Veterinary Medicine or foundation courses.

Medicine  

Instead of an enhanced contextual offer, Medicine applicants starting in September 2022 who meet the following criteria will be considered for the interview stage without having to go through the UCAT/GCSE scoring stage of our selection process:

• meet the entry requirements for any of our undergraduate Medicine courses (A100, A10L, A108 and A18L)
• have completed the Nottingham Pathways Programme, the Nottingham Potential Summer School or the Nottingham Sutton Trust Summer School

Applicants will still need to sit the UCAT and achieve Band 1 to 3 on the Situational Judgement Test.