Step-by-step guide to check your eligibility

There are three different tools you can use to check whether you are eligible for the Access Loughborough Contextual Offer and details of how you can use them are provided below.

Check the POLAR4 Quintile of your home postcode

Use the Office for Students POLAR4 look up tool.
Select the 'Search by postcode' option.
Type your home postcode in the 'Search postcode' box and press 'View Results'.
The POLAR4 Quintile of your home postcode will be displayed.
Make a note of the POLAR4 Quintile of your home postcode.
If your home postcode is POLAR4 Quintile 1, this is one of the eligibility criteria for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer.

Check the IMD Quintile of your home postcode

Use the English indices of deprivation 2019 data lookup tool.
Type your home postcode in the ‘Enter postcodes’ box.
Click ‘Get deprivation data'.
The data for your home postcode will be available as an xlsx or csv file. To open in Excel, download the xlsx file.
Download deprivation data
Column F in the downloaded spreadsheet gives you the Index of Multiple Deprivation Decile. This will be a number from 1 to 10.
Determine the IMD Quintile:
    • Decile 1 or 2 = IMD Quintile 1
    • Decile 3 or 4 = IMD Quintile 2
    • Decile 5 or 6 = IMD Quintile 3
    • Decile 7 or 8 = IMD Quintile 4
    • Decile 9 or 10 = IMD Quintile 5
Make a note of the IMD Quintile of your home postcode.
If your home postcode is IMD Quintile 1, this is one of the eligibility criteria for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer.

Check the eligibility of your school or college

Download the list of schools or colleges.
List of eligible schools or colleges PDF
To search for your school or college open the PDF document.
Press ‘Ctrl + F’ and type in your school or college name.
Make a note of whether your school or college appears on this list.
If your most recently attended school or college is a non-fee paying (state) school or college and appears on this list, this is one of the eligibility criteria for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer.

Are you eligible for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer?

After using the look up tools, you can count how many of the Access Loughborough Contextual Offer eligibility criteria you meet.

If you meet two or more of the criteria for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer, you are eligible for this scheme.

You are also eligible for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer if:

  • You were known to be eligible for and in receipt of free school meals (FSM) at the end of Key Stage 4 (Year 11) and/or six years prior to this point (England)
  • You were known to be eligible for Free School Meals in the 6 years prior to Year 12 (Northern Ireland)
  • You were known to have been eligible for Free School Meals between the start of Year 11 and the January five years prior to this (Wales)
  • You are currently in receipt of Free School Meals or Free Meals in Further Education