Step 3: Your decision

Accepting your offer

If you want to take up this offer, you need to accept it through your applicant portal as soon as possible. This is especially important if you need to apply for a visa to study at UCL.  

Some courses have a response deadline

Some courses need you to respond by a certain date. If your course has a deadline to respond it will say on your offer letter.  

If you do not respond by the deadline, we will withdraw your offer. 

Some courses do not have a response deadline

If your offer letter does not have a response deadline you can take longer to decide.  

But we do ask you to respond no later than: 

• six weeks before your course start, for UK students, or  
• 10 weeks before your course start, for international students. 

You do not need to get in touch to inform us that you are still deciding, just accept the offer on the applicant portal as soon as you can.

If you have multiple offers to study at UCL

You will only be able to accept one offer at UCL. 

If you have already accepted an offer, and receive another you wish to accept instead, your acceptance of the first offer will automatically change to declined. 

Declining your offer

If you decide not to study at UCL, or wish to accept an offer for another course, decline your offer on the applicant portal.  

It will only take a few minutes, and this will allow us to offer the place to another candidate.

If you change your mind

We understand that circumstances change

If you have accepted your offer 

You should withdraw your application if you have accepted your offer but cannot join the programme. 

You can do this on the programme homepage of the applicant portal. It will only take a few minutes, and this will allow us to offer the place to another candidate.  

If you have paid a tuition fee deposit, please note that this is non-refundable as per the tuition fee deposit policy.  

During August and September, the withdraw button may disappear from your applicant portal. This is because we are preparing your records for enrolment. If you cannot see the withdraw button at the bottom of the programme homepage, contact the Student Enquiries Centre.   

If you have declined your offer

If you have declined your offer, but would now like to accept, you will need to contact the academic department to check if a place is still available for you.  

If they are happy to reinstate your offer, the academic department will inform Graduate Admissions directly.

Deferring your offer

Graduate Taught programmes (e.g., Masters or MRes) 

UCL does not accept requests to defer.  

But we understand that there are sometimes exceptional circumstances that are outside of your control.  

Read about deferring your graduate taught offer 

If you have already received a deferred offer for the 2024 academic year, we assure you that it will remain in place. 

Graduate Research programmes (e.g., MPhil/PhD, EngD) 

You can delay your start date for up to one calendar year from the start date shown in your original offer.  

If you need to delay the start date of your research degree, contact the academic department to discuss this further.  

Once you agree to a new start date, the academic department will ask the Graduate Admissions Office to update your offer.    

Requesting a change to your mode of attendance (study mode) or programme

If you hold an offer but wish to enrol on another programme at UCL you can only do so if you have applied and hold an offer for the other programme. We will not be able to change the programme on your current offer.  

If you do not wish to accept the offer for the programme in your offer letter, please decline the offer on the applicant portal. This will allow us to offer the place to another candidate. 

If you need to change your mode of attendance (study mode), you can request a change via our contact form. The Graduate Admissions Office will then check if a change is possible. You can only move to a mode of attendance (study mode) available on the programme’s prospectus page. 

If you need a student visa you can only study full-time.

If you have difficulties after enrolment

You should speak to your academic department, if after you have enrolled you find yourself: 

• struggling with your programme, or  
• having difficulties with your chosen mode of attendance (study mode).