Challenging circumstances

If you have faced challenging circumstances which impacted your education, you can tell us about them in your application.

We are committed to supporting young people whose education has been impacted by challenging circumstances.

Examples of challenging circumstances

Challenging circumstances affecting your learning experience may include:   

  • significant caring responsibilities (this means, giving emotional or practical care to someone who would not be able to look after themselves otherwise)
  • disability or severe illness
  • mental health conditions
  • lack of educational opportunities within relevant subject areas
  • sexual or gender identity
  • bereavement
  • belonging to an ethnic minority group 

You should ask your UCAS referee to tell us about challenging circumstances, which are not part of the factors we assess when making widening access offers, in their reference.  

Admissions policies and procedures 

Who should tell us about challenging circumstances

Your UCAS referee should include any relevant information in the reference they write for you about your challenging circumstances. They may also want to contact us directly or send supporting information. We need to receive this information before the UCAS deadline. 

We will review recommendations from your UCAS referee on a case-by-case basis. Such recommendations should describe the impact of challenging circumstances on your educational experience and opportunities. 

How to send us supporting information

You should send supporting information by email where possible. 

 

Email: futurestudents@ed.ac.uk  

 

Make sure your email includes: 

 

  • your UCAS identification number, or 
  • your University of Edinburgh Universal User Name (UUN) 

 

If you cannot email us, use our online enquiry form to let us know and we can discuss alternative ways of sending the information. 

 

Submit an enquiry 

Contact us through an online sign language interpreter

British Sign Language (BSL) users can contact the University of Edinburgh via Contact Scotland BSL, the online British Sign Language video relay interpreting service.

Find out more on the Contact Scotland BSL website


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