UCAS personal statements are changing in 2025: here’s what you need to know

It has long been felt that the university application process has grown outdated, with many students feeling the process of writing a personal statement is difficult and not a great reflection of who you are and what you can offer a university.

UCAS has revised their application process to replace the traditional personal statement essay with getting students to answer three questions.

On the 18th July 2024, UCAS confirmed that this will be changing for those applying to university for 2026.

What is the new application process?

With the new process, you will answer three questions. These will be:

1. Why do you want to study this course or subject? This is where you can show your passion for the subject as well as your existing knowledge. It will show universities you understand the course and you’re enthusiastic to push your understanding!
2. How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course? Here you can show more of your academic skills such as essay writing, as well as transferable skills such as team work, communication, and organisation.
3. What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences helpful? This is a chance to talk about extracurricular activities. Whether this be your hobbies, sports clubs, or further reading. It will, again show your passion for learning and some of the great qualities you have.

These questions will allow you to present yourself in a way that has more structure than the previous version. While the original question list included longer questions on preparedness for study and preferred learning styles, these questions caused confusion due to different teaching and assessment styles. Because of this, they’ve been removed from the potential questions.

Along with this change, teachers' references will also change to allow for more objective comments.

When does this new process start?

This new process will be introduced in 2025 and take effect for 2026 applicants. Those applying in the 2024 or 2025 admissions cycle will still need to write a personal statement for their application in the current format.

This means the new process will be coming in after January 2025 (October 2024, if you are applying to Oxbridge).

A personalised tool will also launch later this year. This tool will provide applicants with entry-grade reports that will give students a range of the profiles accepted onto similar courses over a five-year period, using UCAS data.

This process was originally supposed to start in 2024 but after ongoing testing, this has been pushed back. It’s unknown whether the new process will be postponed again for the 2026 admissions cycle.

Why is the process changing?

UCAS has decided to change the university application process based on student feedback. This process will now offer greater support for applicants from different academic backgrounds.

UCAS has recently published their own report on current applications, called the Future of Undergraduate Admissions report. This research discovered that, out of 13,000 polled students, as many as 83% found writing a personal statement to be too stressful, while a further 79% found the statement too difficult to write without appropriate support.

Personal statements were not unpopular, however. 72% of students found that personal statements were essential parts of the university application process. Personal statements allowed students to stand out as more than just application numbers and their grades. However, the question format will allow students to continue to stand out from other applicants.

How are teacher references changing?

Teacher references are changing to allow teachers to make more objective comments regarding students. Students can pick current or former academic referees, such as teachers, tutors or head teachers; these referees will then write a full reference about the student's career goals, work experience and predicted grades.

Under the new system, the referee will instead answer three structured questions. In these questions, teachers will include a general statement about the student’s school or college, any extenuating circumstances that could affect the student’s exam performances and any other circumstances the teacher feels the university should be aware of.