The personal statement is a cornerstone of applying to university for students in the UK. Applicants get to write up to 4,000 characters dedicated to making the case that they are the right person for a particular course, used however they best see fit. Usually this is about presenting a case that they have thought through their choice, are excited about the subject and that they have grand plans when they graduate. It’s a pivotal moment for many, sitting down and putting to paper what makes you “you” for the first time.
Today, however, UCAS (the UK’s University and Colleges Admissions Service) announced that the personal statement would be no more and that they are replacing it with a new written format that also would be submitted along with UCAS applications.
Having worked as Admission Tutor for York’s Department of Politics and International Relations for the past three years, I know all too well how much students worry about the personal statement. Parents and sixth-form colleges are often part of this worry – stressing that there is a right and wrong way to present a personal statement. UCAS itself offers advice to all applicants on how to ‘stand out from the crowd’ through the personal statement, offering a list of eight different topics that an applicant might want to address.
However, despite all this stress and pressure, it’s an open secret in higher education that in many institutions, the personal statement no longer has the level of import that it once had. While they still might be read in some cases, primarily decisions on whether to make an offer or not have largely hinged on grades alone for some time now. That students were feeling this pressure was then, at best, a bit unproductive. Especially when they could have been investing that time and effort in a more worthwhile way by concentrating and getting those grades in the first place.
However, the personal statement might have been more harmful than by being simply ‘unproductive’. For those institutions that still seriously consider the personal statement, the statement was giving an outsized advantage to those applicants who had stronger support networks around them when they were applying to university. Privately educated students have been especially identified as ones who would be getting this kind of extra support.
Given that research from UCAS found that 79% of applicants reported that it would be difficult to complete the personal statement without support, these factors matter. They matter especially as universities look to widen participation in coming years – something that might be more likely under the newly elected Labour government. Currently, the rate of applications from those with the most disadvantaged backgrounds is actually declining across most of the UK (Scotland is the exception here).
So, I think that the removal of the personal statement is a bit of a win. It’s something that’s been coming down the pipeline for some time and now we know that the changed system will be in place for students applying to begin their studies in September 2026.
But what’s replacing the personal statement?
UCAS have shared that ‘following extensive research, testing and validation with students, teachers and advisers, and universities and colleges’, rather than the 4,000 character text box personal statement format, students will be asked to respond to three questions:
- Why do you want to study this course or subject?
- How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
- What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences helpful?
This guided approach has clear advantages. Applicants who are not getting support in the drafting process will have clear pointers on what they should be writing about and in a more simple and structured way than with the free-form personal statement.
Of course, this is not a silver bullet to the problems with the personal statement. Afterall, this isn’t a sharp shift to only focusing on students’ grades. There is still a written portion of UCAS applications. Questions still remain. Will universities give this new format more weight than they do the personal statement in making offer decisions? Won’t privately educated students and non-first generation students still have an advantage in the drafting process? Will the focus on ‘this course or subject’ mean applicants feel more pressure to make earlier decisions to only apply for one subject area? Some of these problems are unlikely to be easy or even fully realisable fixes – but this change is a step in the right direction.