Frequently asked questions

Eligibility for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer is determined by your home postcode and most recent school or college listed on your UCAS application.

Whether 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) or you were known to be eligible for Free School Meals in the 6 years prior to Year 12 (Northern Ireland) or 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) is also shared directly with us by UCAS.

If you have received free school meals or free meals in further education from your school/college since this point, you will need to notify the Admissions Office of this information as soon as possible after submitting your application and before 30 June for it to be considered.This information will require verification by a school/college. You should ask a member of staff at the school/college you attended/attend whilst in receipt of free school meals, to verify this information on official letter headed paper to admissions@lboro.ac.uk. We can only verify this information if received from a school/college email address.

An Access Loughborough Contextual Offer will be up to two grades lower than the typical offers found on individual course listings.

Eligibility for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer means if you are successful in receiving an offer from Loughborough, this will be up to two grades lower than typical entry requirements for your chosen course.

However, meeting the eligibility criteria for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer does not guarantee that you will be made an offer. When your application has been received it will be individually assessed, considering the full range of information presented in the application. This includes academic achievement demonstrated by predicted and achieved grades, qualification and subject combinations, your academic reference and your Personal Statement. Currently, Access Loughborough Contextual Offers are only for applicants who are studying three A Levels, or a combination of two A Levels and an accepted alternative Level 3 qualification. 

If you have read the eligibility criteria for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer and believe you meet this but your offer does not include ‘This is a contextual offer’, then please email the Undergraduate Admissions Office, including your full name and UCAS Personal ID Number, outlining how you meet the criteria for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer.

We have provided instructions on how to check your eligibility.

Applicants studying three A Levels, or a combination of two A Levels and an accepted alternative Level 3 qualification are currently considered for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer.

 If you are taking a different qualification or combination of qualifications, unfortunately you would not be considered for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer at this time. However, we are monitoring the scheme and seeking ways to include further qualifications for subsequent years.

Contextual information on your application will still be considered and may be given additional consideration when your application and results are received.

Eligibility criteria have been carefully selected to identify those least likely to be represented in Higher Education. We have also chosen measures that are available to us at the point of application and can be easily verified.

We understand the challenges of using contextual information and will be continually monitoring and evaluating the information available to us to update our policy accordingly.

Whilst the average QCA points achieved per A Level entry at your school or college can form part of the reason you may be eligible for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer, it is not the only contextual information considered and therefore your circumstances may be different to someone else in your school or college.

For all applicants, a range of information is considered to provide insight into the context in which academic qualifications have been achieved as part of a holistic assessment of an application. We provide further information on the contextual information used and where this information comes from here.  

School attended cannot be considered where qualifications have been taken over 3 academic years ago.

Yes, if additional contextual information suggests you would be eligible for a reduced offer, and your grades already meet the requirements for the reduced offer, you may be made an unconditional offer.

Admissions selectors will consider additional contextual information as part of their assessment of an application. Additional contextual information does not guarantee an offer.

If you have been identified as eligible for a reduced offer, then your offer conditions will include ‘This is a contextual offer’ to make this clear to you. You can see how the conditions of your offer compare to typical entry requirements on individual course listings within the online prospectus.  

Additional contextual information does not always lead to a reduced offer. It may be that an offer has been made where it would not have been without the additional contextual information, or an alternative course offer has been made. Letting you know that ‘This is a contextual offer’ may help you to understand why a particular action has been taken.

Universities will differ in the ways they use contextual information. We recommend you check how contextual information is used here at Loughborough.

Much of the additional information we consider to provide the context in which qualifications are achieved remains applicable, no matter what school or college you attend.

The school you most recently attended is considered as one of the eligibility criteria for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer. The full eligibility criteria is outlined too.

We do not currently consider household income as additional contextual information as we are unable to verify this for everyone at the point of application. However, eligibility and receipt of Free School Meals is considered.

Eligibility for an Access Loughborough Contextual Offer guarantees that if you are made an offer, it will be reduced by up to two grades. A reduced offer of up to one grade lower than typical entry requirements may occasionally be made due to other contextual information considered.

Opportunities sometimes arise for students to take a gap year, either to go travelling or gain work experience. We will always try to support students who want to defer for one year and this would not affect your eligibility a reduced contextual offer. If you have decided that you want to amend your year of entry, please email the Undergraduate Admissions Office, including your full name and UCAS Personal ID Number. We will usually be able to process this change fairly swiftly and you will see an amendment to your offer on your UCAS application and receive a new offer letter stating the updated year of entry.

No, you do not need to make Loughborough University your Firm or Insurance choice to be eligible for a contextual offer if you receive one.