Admissions Policy: how we make offers

At NTU, we review our admissions policy every year. This means that we’re always evaluating how we make offers to keep the process fair for everyone.

Applicants to our undergraduate degrees have a range of different experiences, qualifications and backgrounds. We believe that your access to higher education shouldn’t be limited by circumstances that are out of your control.

You can find our full admissions policy in our Quality Handbook, but we’ve highlighted a few important sections here that we think you should know about.

If you would like to know more about applying to NTU or have any questions about your offer, please contact our Admissions and Enquiries team on +44(0)115 848 4200 or complete our enquiry form.

How we assess your application

When you apply to NTU, you will need to demonstrate your suitability for a course through your personal statement, references and qualifications. For some courses, we will also invite you to an interview and ask to see some of your work so that we can understand more about you.

We list our requirements for each course on our website so you can see what you need to include in your application.

NTU welcomes applications from students with a wide variety of qualifications and experience and use the UCAS Tariff when making our offers. We will consider both academic and vocational qualifications, including T Levels in accordance with the specified course tariff points.

Where specific subjects are required we would assess the content of all qualifications that a student is undertaking to see if the content meets our requirements.

We also consider qualifications that do not carry UCAS tariff points, and a number of international qualifications. We may also consider credits achieved at other universities and your work/life experience through an assessment of prior learning.

Please contact our Admissions team if you need advice about your qualifications and application.

How we make offers

We review all this information about you when deciding how to handle your application. We will always try to make an offer where possible, usually conditional on achieving tariff points from up to four qualifications. You can find our standard entry criteria on the course pages .

We may also:

make an alternative offer, for a foundation degree or foundation year for example, if you are not taking the required subjects or do not meet essential criteria;
make an offer even if our standard entry criteria have not been met, considering work or life experience and other aspects of your application. You can find more information about this on our student transfer page

When we receive your results, we’ll consider your grades against your offer. If you don’t meet the conditions, we’ll reassess your circumstances to see if we can accept you with the grades you’ve achieved or make an alternative offer.

If you receive an offer from us, it’s really important that you check it carefully before making your decision. Even if you’ve met the academic requirements, there may still be things you need to do such as providing proof of your results or getting a DBS check.

Here are some tips from UCAS on how to make the right choice for you.

Contextual offers

You will see on our course pages that we also make contextual offers to eligible applicants. At NTU, we are committed to doing the right thing for our applicants and supporting everyone who has the potential to succeed to do so.

Contextual offers are usually an offer one grade lower than our standard entry criteria but may also be an unconditional offer for a course that requires a portfolio.

We use a range of data from UCAS to make our contextual offers, including your background (such as where you live and the school or college you attended), your experiences and individual circumstances (e.g., you may receive free school meals).

Applicants who are guaranteed a contextual offer include:

Students studying at Nottingham College, Vision West Notts College, Bilborough College, Confetti or a college course at NTU and progressing to a full-time undergraduate degree at NTU;
Those with a home postcode in the East Midlands devolved authority (which covers Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Derby and Nottingham);
Applicants who are care experienced or are estranged from their families.

As we receive this information from UCAS, you don’t have to do anything extra to receive a contextual offer and these are automatically made to eligible applicants.

Processing time

We aim to process decisions for undergraduate applications within 14 working days, however this may take longer in cases where academic consultation, an interview/portfolio assessment or special circumstances need to be taken into consideration.

Postgraduate applications can take up to six weeks for a decision.

NTU Admissions team

Our Admissions team is committed through processes, systems and customer interactions to providing exceptional service and we work to a strict code of practice. Fairness and transparency is at the heart of everything we do.

We work to a set of standards that we call our customer charter. The main principles are:

We are admissions experts and will deal with your application in a fair, transparent and consistent manner
We can help you achieve your potential
We are a source of clear, consistent and accurate information
We are here to help you every step of the way
We keep things just between us, ensuring confidentiality.

Read more information on our customer charter page.

How we expect our applicants to act

Everyone at NTU, including staff, students and the wider NTU community, is expected to do the right thing.

We do not tolerate any form of discrimination, bullying or harassment. We expect that all interactions – including on social media – between prospective students, students, supporters and staff be conducted with mutual understanding and respect.

We do not tolerate any breaches of these guidelines, and any unacceptable behaviour may influence an application or appeal.

As an applicant you are expected:

to be considerate and respectful to the needs of fellow prospective students, students, and staff of the University
to comply with reasonable requests or instructions from members of University staff
to conduct yourself appropriately in all forms of communication, including personal social media and when using official NTU social media groups
not to submit false claims against other prospective or current members of the NTU community in order to actively discredit an individual.

More information can be found in the Quality Handbook.

Criminal convictions

We don’t ask about criminal convictions as part of the application process for the majority of our courses. Our application processes promote fairness and transparency, ensuring we are selecting prospective students with proven academic potential from the widest range of backgrounds.

We only ask about criminal convictions when the course leads to certain professions or occupations exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974), including teacher training or social work.

Student Accommodation Services, our enrolment process or specific course modules such as work placements may ask about unspent, relevant criminal convictions.

The types of convictions considered relevant include:

any kind of violence including (but not limited to) threatening behaviour, offences concerning the intention to harm or offences which resulted in actual bodily harm
offences listed in the Sexual Offences Act 2003
the unlawful supply of controlled drugs or substances where the conviction concerns commercial drug dealing or trafficking
offences involving firearms
offences involving arson
offences listed on the Terrorism Act 2006
offences of human trafficking, slavery and forced labour.

If you have an unspent relevant criminal conviction or a restriction which may impact your ability to complete a course at NTU and would like to discuss your situation in confidence, please contact Jonathan Griffiths, Compliance and Systems Officer.

Students under the age of 18

We know there are times when qualified students may be under the age of 18 when they start their studies at NTU. We consider these cases on an individual basis, however for full-time undergraduate programmes students must turn 18 within their first year of study in order to be made an offer and may be required to live in specific accommodation.

How we handle applicant appeals and complaints

We are committed to social mobility, opportunity and wellbeing. We want NTU to be a safe and enjoyable place for our community.

But that doesn’t mean that we get things right every time, and we are always looking for ways to improve.

If you have a complaint or would like to appeal an admissions decision, you should contact the Admissions and Enquiries team. We will talk through your feedback or issues, and give you advice on how to take things further if you need to. You can also call us on +44 (0)115 848 4200.

We always aim to resolve issues informally first, but please don’t hesitate to contact us if you do have anything you would like to raise.

You can find our full appeals process in our Quality Handbook.