How to apply for an undergraduate course

1. Choose your course

It may sound pretty basic, but before you apply you’ll need to choose your perfect course. If you already know what you want to study, head to the next section, but don't worry if you're not sure yet. Use our course search to explore what we offer.

2. Register with UCAS Hub

Register your details with UCAS Hub. We recommend doing this now. Registering is easy, you just need to provide some basic personal details.

Being registered with UCAS Hub means that when you're ready to fill out your application, everything is ready to go.

3. Write your personal statement

First things first: download our guide to writing your personal statement. 

Your personal statement is incredibly important so it's worth spending time on. Write about themes including: 

• what makes you stand out from the crowd
• who you are and why you want to study your chosen subject
• any relevant experience you have.

Be enthusiastic and focus on what you’ve learnt from school or college plus any work experience or volunteering. With teaching or health-related subjects, highlighting your experiences is a big part of a successful application.

Your personal statement is also a great place to tell us about you, so include:

• your career ambitions
• how your course will help you achieve your goals
• your interests, such as sports, theatre, travel, music or reading.

4. Supply your reference

If you're applying whilst at school or college, references will not appear on UCAS Apply as your school or college will add this for you. 

If you’re not currently in education, you’ll need to complete your referee’s details. You can ask your manager or someone who knows you from a professional setting to provide a reference. Once again, it's good to have a reference sorted as soon as you can. 

5. Submit your application

Double check your application and ensure all information is correct before you submit. The fee for applying through UCAS in 2025 is £28.50 for up to five choices.

Once you submit your application, UCAS processes it and sends it to your chosen universities, including CCCU.

6. Track your application

You can see the progress of your application in your UCAS account.

We work hard to respond to your application as soon as possible, so you could hear from us within a matter of days or weeks. If you submit your application by the 29 January deadline, you'll hear back from us by early May at the very latest.

7. Need more choices?

Something to consider after the January deadline is adding more choices.

If you applied for five courses and haven't received any offers, or decide you don't want any of these offers and decline them, you can enter UCAS Extra at no cost. 

If you didn't use your five choices you can add another in your UCAS Hub. You can do this until 30 June and it will cost £4.50. 

In UCAS Extra you're offered two new choices. You can add these in the same way you did in your original application, but you don't need to redo any other aspects of it. If you don't hear back from your additional choices within 21 days you can continue to wait or add a new choice.

If you don't get the choice you wanted in UCAS Extra, you can still consider entering Clearing when it opens on 5 July.