Offer requirements explained

Your letter may state:

“In addition to any references we may have already received, please provide an additional satisfactory reference on official letterhead paper or authenticated with a business stamp or a stamp from the institution”

Whether your reference is academic or from your employer, please make sure it is on headed paper with the organisation’s logo and address. It should include the date, your details and the details of the referee with a summary of how they know you and confirm your suitability for studying on the course you have applied for. It should be signed by the referee with their official contact details. The reference can be in PDF or similar format and uploaded to the Postgraduate Application Portal. 

If your offer of a place is conditional upon providing evidence of your academic qualifications, please see below for information with regards to what are acceptable forms of verification:

By Post

We currently advise you not to send any verified or certified documents to us through the post. Our staff will not be available to receive these.

In Person

We currently advise you not to visit the campus to bring in any verified or certified documents. Our staff will not be available to receive these.

By Email

We can accept verification of your results via email. This can be from yourself or the organisation, school, college or university who awarded the qualification.  

Where you have provided verification of your results yourself, you will need to bring the original certificate or transcript or a certified copy with you when you register for your course.

The email must follow these instructions:

• Contain a scanned copy of the original certificate or transcript as an attachment or if the email is from a school, college or univeristy, they may confirm the exact result(s) and qualification name in the body of the email.
• If scanned copies are provided by a school, college or university, then the email must confirm that the scanned copy is a true likeness of the original document which they must have seen.
• Emails must be sent to the email address stipulated in your offer letter or admissions@contacts.bham.ac.uk. Please also indicate VERIFICATION OF RESULTS in the subject line of the email.

Any emails which do not follow these instructions will not be accepted as verification of qualifications.

From an Overseas Representative

If you are domiciled outside the UK, you may wish to use one of our overseas representatives, who may be able to verify your qualifications and send these to us via email. 

Translated Documents

All non-English Language documents must be accompanied by an official certified translation. For details, please visit the translations for supporting documents webpage. 

Online Portal (Postgraduate applicants only)

If you are applying for one of our Postgraduate courses, you may use your online applicant portal to upload your document. Please note that if you choose to provide your verification in this way, you will also need to to bring the original certificate or transcript or a certified copy with you when you register for your course.

 Visit the PG online applicant portal

FAQs

Read our FAQs for further information and advice for applicants (future students) during the Coronavirus epidemic.

Coronavirus Updates

Your letter may state:

“Please provide evidence of proficiency in English Language. For this programme we require 6.0 IELTS (with no less than 5.5 in any band) or Pearson Test of English (PTE) with 51 in all four skills. Tests should be no more than two years old at the time of admission.”

For the full list of suitable documents which you can use as your proof of English proficiency, you can visit our English language requirements page.

Make sure that your test results are no more than two years old from the start date of your course* at the University of Birmingham.

You can scan and upload a copy of your results to the Postgraduate application portal. You do not need to send in a copy of this to the University or bring it when you are verifying your documents with our representatives in your country as the University can verify the certificate using the reference code.

*If you are deferring your offer by one year, please make sure your test results will still be valid for when your course starts next year. 

Exemptions

For those who have recently graduated from a University in the UK or majority English speaking country (e.g USA, Australia, New Zealand or Canada) you may be exempt from taking English language test. Please note that if your degree was delivered in English but not at a recognised university in the UK or majority English speaking country, our Admissions Office will require you to demonstrate your level of English with IELTS/TOEFL/PTE or alternative qualifications. You may also want to check our country pages as some countries may have certain exemptions, such as those who graduate from the University of Malta.

You will still need to present evidence of your qualifications studied in English to meet our entry requirement. Our admission office will then review your application and if exempt you will not be required to provide evidence of English language proficiency. 

Your letter may state:

“You will be required to obtain an Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) clearance certificate for this programme. Please note that once ATAS clearance is obtained it is only valid for six months prior to the start of your programme.”

If you are an international student applying to a science or technology related programme, you may need to apply for an ATAS Clearance Certificate.

If your programme requires an ATAS, you will be notified in your offer letter and be given all the information you will need for the ATAS Clearance Certificate. To make an application for the ATAS Clearance Certificate, please visit https://www.gov.uk/academic-technology-approval-scheme and enter the exact information you were given in your offer letter.

Your ATAS will only be valid for six months, in which time you should apply for your visa.