How we use your data
You don’t need to apply for contextual admissions - applications are assessed automatically when they come into our system from UCAS.
We use four pieces of information, where available, from the application form to assess your eligibility for contextual admissions.
We check your home postcode against two datasets:
- POLAR4 – this measures the level of progression into higher education across the country. You meet our criteria if your postcode is classified as Quintile 1.
- ACORN –this categorises areas based on social factors and population behaviour. You meet our criteria if your postcode is classified as ACORN category 5 (Stretched Society), 6 (Low Income Living) or Group N (Urban Diversity) in Category 4 (Steadfast Communities).
Please note: the postcode data used is from July 2024 and outcomes may therefore differ to what is returned via search tools on the Acorn and POLAR4 websites.
If you have more than one address, we would expect you to provide the details of where you spend the majority of your time as your home address in your UCAS application.
We only check your postcode if your home postcode is in the UK and you are under the age of 21.
Schools are flagged according to whether they performed above or below the national average (this average is calculated internally as opposed to the published national average).
This data is collected directly from the Department for Education (England and Northern Ireland), and the Welsh and Scottish governments where an average is taken across three years, where available.
We only check your school/college if your home postcode and school/college is in the UK and you are under the age of 21.
You’ll need to answer ‘yes’ on your UCAS form if you've spent time living with foster carers under local authority care in residential care (such as a children's home) or in kinship care with relatives or friends, officially (such as. a special guardianship order) or informally without local authority support.
This means that you’ve applied for asylum and have received an outcome granting you refugee status.
You'll need to choose ‘refugee’ under the 'residential category' on your UCAS form if you’ve been granted this status. Individuals who’ve been issued a visa under one of the Ukrainian schemes (Homes for Ukraine, Ukraine Family Scheme or Ukraine Extension Scheme) will be classified as a refugee for the purposes of contextual data.
When submitting your UCAS application, you should select ‘refugee’ as your 'residential category' in the where you live section of the form. This will ensure that your status is automatically flagged in our system.
Explaining contextual flags
Your application will automatically receive a contextual flag if you meet certain eligibility criteria based on the data above. There are three different flags you could be given.
You’ll be assigned a WP Plus flag if you meet our postcode criteria and one of your schools has performed below the national average.
You’ll be given a WP Plus PLUS flag if you have refugee status or have been in care for more than three months.
On your UCAS application, make sure you specify:
- whether you've been in care for more than three months, including living with foster carers, in a children's home or if you've been looked after under a home supervision order in Scotland.
- whether you have refugee status in the ‘residential category’ section.