2020 undergraduate admissions

If you accepted an offer to study with us (i.e. we were your firm or insurance* choice on UCAS before Results Day) and we had rejected you based on the Ofqual moderated grades, but the change to centre assessed grades (revised grades submitted by your school or college) announced by the Government means you now meet the terms of your offer, we are pleased to confirm we will honour our original offer and confirm your place upon receipt of your revised results via UCAS. The only exceptions are where the number of places is externally capped and/or where we are reliant on external placements which are limited in number. These include Medicine, Dentistry, Dental Hygiene and Therapy, Nursing, Social Work, Physiotherapy, Applied Golf Management Studies, and our degree apprenticeships in Computer Science in partnership with PWC and Vodafone. For these programmes, we are having to review our capacity and will confirm upon receipt of updated results.

*Please note that if we were your insurance choice, you first need to contact your firm choice institution. We will only be able to accept you if you do not meet the terms of your first choice institution and you fully meet the offer terms for your place at Birmingham.

We will receive your Centre Assessed Grades (revised grades) directly from UCAS. We are working closely with UCAS on this process and expect to receive them on the afternoon of Thursday 20 August. At that point it will take us time to process the results. If you have already received your Centre Assessed Grades (revised grades) directly from your school or college please complete our Admissions Qualification Review and Appeals Form. Please note that in order to be fair to all applicants, some of whom may not have received their Centre Assessed Grades (revised grades) directly, we will wait until we have received new results from UCAS before revising individual decisions. We will then be in contact with you regarding any steps you should take and there is no need to contact us in the meantime.

We will receive your Centre Assessed Grades (revised grades) directly from UCAS. We are working closely with UCAS on this process and expect to receive them on the afternoon of Thursday 20 August. At that point it will take us time to process the results. If you have already received your Centre Assessed Grades (revised grades) directly from your school or college please complete our Admissions Qualification Review and Appeals Form. Please note that in order to be fair to all applicants, some of whom may not have received their Centre Assessed Grades (revised grades) directly, we will wait until we have received new results from UCAS before revising individual decisions. We will then be in contact with you regarding any steps you should take.  

We have received your new International Baccalaureate results directly and it will now take us time to process the results. We will contact you at the earliest possible opportunity once this work is complete. In the meantime please do not contact us as we will be unable to provide you with a definitive response.

Following the announcement by Pearson late on Wednesday 19 August we note that some BTEC results may change. We expect to handle any such changes in the same way as for A level and IB changes. We are expecting to receive the revised grades on Tuesday 25 August.

We know that you may already have received your revised A level grades and will be very keen to know if your place can be confirmed. The University will not receive the results from UCAS until the afternoon of Thursday 20 August at the earliest, and will then need time to process the results. We will contact you at the earliest possible opportunity once this work is complete but in the meantime, please do not contact us as we will be unable to provide you with a definitive response. Thank you for your patience and understanding at what we know is an incredibly stressful time.  

Unfortunately we are no longer in Clearing and will not be accepting new applications for 2020.

We would like to assure all students who have had their place at the University of Birmingham confirmed that their place is safe. We will not be changing our decision to accept you.

If you were made an offer of a place on an alternative course when you received your results because you didn't meet the requirements of your preferred programme, and accepted our alternative course offer, that offer still stands and you have your place.

If you were made an offer on an alternative course, accepted it, and your Centre Assessed Grades (revised grades) now mean that you meet the terms of your original offer for your first choice programme at Birmingham, then you will be able to move back to your original programme (exceptions may apply where courses have capacity limits).

If you were made an offer on an alternative course and rejected it, and your Centre Assessed Grades (revised grades) now mean that you meet the terms of your original offer for your first choice programme, then we will be able to honour the terms of that offer for your original programme (exceptions may apply where courses have capacity limits).

If Birmingham was your insurance or Clearing choice and you are currently placed with us, but your amended grades now meet the offer made by your firm choice University, you should follow any guidance provided by that University.

If you have not been accepted on to your chosen programme for 2020 you won’t be able to defer. You can apply again for 2021 through UCAS when applications open in September and we recommend that you review our entry requirements before submitting an application.

You can apply for 2021 entry through UCAS when applications open in September. We will consider both Centre Assessed Grades and your autumn resit results, whichever is higher.

We have limited the number of applicants we offer a deferred place to a very small number of programmes and overall the level of deferrals is similar to previous years. This will minimise the impact on those who are looking to join us in 2021. Candidates for 2021 will be considered in the usual way – please refer to our admissions policy and our programme entry requirements for more information.

Transfers into the University of Birmingham after a foundation year or after year 1 at another university are assessed on a case-by-case basis and student should apply via UCAS.

As your place has already been confirmed based on your calculated grades and other information from your application, we will not need your adjusted grades should your appeal be successful. If you wish to appeal in order to be considered for the higher grade you should speak to your school or college who can advise of the process.

If your application has been successful we would recommend that you focus on taking up your place and commencing your studies this year. However, for most courses a student who wants to take A level exams this Autumn will be permitted to do so. Please note this may not be possible on some healthcare professional programmes within the College of Medical and Dental Sciences. You will need to make your own arrangements for these exams and you should be mindful of any possible impact this may have on your degree studies; you should discuss this with your academic tutors before making any firm arrangements. Being engaged with your degree studies fully from the outset is likely to have a better impact on your overall academic performance and the eventual outcome of your degree.  

If your application has not been successful this year unfortunately we won’t be able to take performance in any Autumn exams into account as the results will not be available in time for you to start. If you intend to take exams in the Autumn to secure a place at the University of Birmingham you will need to make a new application through UCAS for entry in 2021. You should check the published entry requirements for your programme as these may change from year to year.

Yes - all students who applied for accommodation before the guarantee deadline of 31 July we will guarantee to find a place in accommodation irrespective of whether you were accepted during Confirmation or as a result of the switch to Centre Assessed Grades (revised grades).

Ofqual have confirmed that schools and colleges can still appeal where there has been an administrative error with the Centre Assessed Grade or rank order information, but cannot appeal against the Centre Assessed Grade that they decided was correct at the point of submitting it to the exam board. Students or others who have concerns about their grades are advised to raise these with their school or college in the first instance.

• Centre Assessment Grades (revised grades) - these are those grades that your school submitted to exam boards and that are now being issued following the new announcement. We expect these will be sent to universities from UCAS on Thursday 20 August, and you may have already received them from your school or college.
• Calculated grades - these are those grades awarded by Ofqual following moderation, using a variety of factors including teacher assessment and school data, and that were originally issued on Results Day.

You may also hear the phrase 'predicted grades'. These are different and cannot be used to enter university. They were submitted by your school as part of your original UCAS application to give an indication of where you may end up, and were used at an earlier stage of the admissions process.