Contextual admissions policy

Check if you're eligible

To qualify for a contextual offer, you must have Home-UK fee status and your current or most recent school cannot be an independent school.

One of the following must also apply:

• You live in an area with high levels of deprivation – check your postcode below
• You have completed one of the following programmes not hosted by the University of Nottingham: a UNIQ, Lincoln Medical School or Sutton Trust summer school or another Sutton Trust programme at post-16
• You have refugee status from the Home Office
• You have spent more than three months in care – in this situation, you are still eligible for a contextual offer if you have attended an independent 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 postcode checker looks up whether you are in IMD quintiles 1 or 2. The data within this postcode checker is updated annually and was last updated in August 2024. 

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.

Specific courses

Medicine

We make contextual offers for our five-year medicine courses – A100. If you meet the requirements for a contextual applicant and are successful at interview, your offer will be the contextual offer of AAB including an A in either biology or chemistry, with the other no lower than a B. Our IB requirements would be 32 points in total including biology and chemistry achieved at Higher Level grade 6 and Higher Level grade 5 in any order. Alternatively, if you have achieved 6,6,5 in 3 Higher Level certificates, including biology and chemistry. Scores exclude the core component.

If you do not meet the GCSE requirements of the five-year courses, you may find our Foundation Year course more suitable - A108. This course is only open to applicants who meet the contextual admissions criteria detailed above. Your offer will be made using our standard entry requirements for our Medicine with a Foundation Year course (BBC). There are no further grade reductions.

Veterinary medicine

Contextual offers will not be made for D190 Veterinary Medicine with a Gateway Year.

Nottingham University Business School

We make contextual offers to several of our courses at ABB, which is two grades lower than standard requirements. The courses include:

• L1N2 Industrial Economics BSc
• L1N2 Industrial Economics with Placement Year BSc
• L1N3 Industrial Economics with Insurance BSc
• L1N3 Industrial Economics with Insurance with Placement Year BSc
• N200 Management BSc
• N200 Management with a Placement Year BSc
• N20A International Management BSc
• N410 Accountancy BSc
• NN34 Finance, Accounting and Management BSc
• NN34 Finance, Accounting and Management with Placement Year BSc

Check if you're eligible

To qualify for an enhanced contextual offer, you must have Home-UK fee status and your current or most recent school cannot be an independent school. You must also meet one of the following: 

• Received Free School Meals on any census day in the 6 years up to the end of key stage 4 (i.e. the year you were aged 15-16 years old) in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland. This is verified by education authorities and shared with us by UCAS. Applicants must have been in Year 13 in the past 5 years.

OR

• Have completed one of the following University of Nottingham outreach programmes:
  • Realising Opportunities at any university
  • Sutton Trust Summer School at the University of Nottingham
  • Sutton Trust Pathways to Medicine at the University of Nottingham
  • Sutton Trust Pathways to Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science at the University of Nottingham
  • Ambition 16-18 at the University of Nottingham as a Tier 1 member

Exceptions for specific courses 

Enhanced contextual offers will not be made below the university’s minimum grade requirements:

• The university minimum for undergraduate courses is BBC at A-level or equivalent.
• The university minimum for Foundation Programmes is BCC at A-level or equivalent*

*The following foundation programmes will not offer below BBC:

• A108 Medicine with a Foundation Year BMBS
• D190 Veterinary Medicine with a Gateway Year

For Natural Sciences courses, the Faculty of Engineering and the School of Life Sciences, enhanced contextual offers will not be further reduced for students taking an EPQ.

Pharmacy

For 2025 entry, enhanced contextual offers for B230 and B236 will only be made to applicants that have completed one of the listed University of Nottingham outreach programmes. 

Applicants that are verified FSM recipients but have not completed one of the listed University of Nottingham outreach programmes will be eligible for a standard contextual offer, which is one grade lower than the entry requirements on our course pages.

For 2026 entry, enhanced contextual offers for B230 and B236 will be made to applicants that have received Free School Meals or have completed one of the listed University of Nottingham outreach programmes

Veterinary Medicine

For 2025 entry, enhanced contextual offers will only apply to D100 and D104. The standard entry requirements on our course page will apply for D190 Veterinary Medicine with a Gateway Year.

Veterinary Medicine applicants applying for September 2025 who meet the following criteria will be offered the opportunity to interview regardless of their score on the situational judgement test. Applicants will need to:

• meet the entry requirements for any of our undergraduate Veterinary Medicine courses (D100, D104 and D190)

And meet one of the following:

• have completed a listed University of Nottingham outreach programme
• are a verified Free School Meals recipient  

Medicine 

For 2025 entry, enhanced contextual offers will not be made for medicine courses. Standard contextual offers will apply for A100.

For 2026 entry, enhanced contextual offers will be made for A100 to applicants that meet one of the following criteria:  

• You have refugee status from the Home Office 

• You have spent more than three months in care and have evidence of this verified by our widening participation team by 15^th December 
  • You must have been in the care of the local authority or looked after under a court order. Informal or private care arrangements are not included.

• You have received Free School Meals  

• You have completed one of the following University of Nottingham outreach programmes: 

• • Realising Opportunities at any university 
  • Sutton Trust Summer School at the University of Nottingham 
  • Sutton Trust Pathways to Medicine at the University of Nottingham 
  • Ambition 16-18 at the University of Nottingham as a Tier 1 member