Writing references

Practical advice on writing informative references

If you have been asked to write a reference for an applicant, please read through the advice
below before starting. The advice is intended for all referees, including tutors, employers,
careers advisers and other suitable persons. Please follow the guidance that is relevant to the
applicant requesting the reference.

UCAS references are designed to provide universities and colleges with an informed and
academic assessment of an applicant's suitability for further study. It is the only part of the
application that the applicants do not write themselves. Universities and colleges are looking
for the following key facts about a student:

 their academic performance in their post-16 education

 their potential for academic success in higher education
 why the course they have chosen is suited to them
 any personal qualities which will benefit them at university, such as skills, aptitude,
enthusiasm
 what they can bring to the university, such as extra-curricular activities and interests.

Read the whole application so that you can understand the applicant's intended career
direction, chosen courses and preferred places of study. When writing your reference, you do
not need to repeat any of the information that the student has given, unless you want to
comment on it. Please note that you should not include a direct reference to any particular
university or college, because at this stage we do not allow them to see the identity of the
other institutions to which an applicant has applied and they will all read your reference.

If you are writing a reference for an international applicant, please write in English. If the
applicant's first language is not English, please comment on their ability to write and speak in
English, and indicate if any of their studies were taught in English.

If you teach the applicant now or taught them prior to their taking a break from
education, please give details and describe how they compare with others in their class.

If the applicant is on an access course, foundation course or other one-year course, you
may not have known them long enough to write a full reference. In this case, please say so
and explain that you are providing a temporary reference (including as much detail as you
can) and will provide a complete reference next spring. All supplementary references should
be sent directly to all the chosen institutions and should quote the applicant's Personal ID.

If you are supplying the reference from a school or college it can be useful to include brief
details about the school/college, such as:

 size and type of school/college

  number of students in student's year group and/or class sizes, and the proportion typically
progressing to HE
 typical number and patterns of qualifications taken by students
 information about school policy such as certification of AS levels
 contextual information about the catchment.

If the student's own situation is different to the typical school policy, it is helpful to give
details of this. If you choose to enter details about the school/college, please ensure that they
are succinct, as the reference should focus mainly on the applicant rather than the centre.

Describe their suitability for the chosen courses

The most important part of your reference is your assessment of the applicant's suitability for
the higher education courses they have chosen. We recommend that you consider including
the following points.

 Proposed career ambitions, attitude, motivation and commitment. If relevant, your opinion
on their suitability for this career path.
 Past achievement and current activities, with particular reference to subjects relating to the
courses for which they are applying.
 Any supplementary information about their qualifications and study which they have not
already described in their application.
 Relevant curriculum enrichment and related skills such as work experience, voluntary work.
 If applicable, how your school or college is involved in Widening Access, Gifted and Talented
initiatives or Partnerships for Progression. If applicants have mentioned any of these
activities in their personal statement, your comments on their involvement may also be
helpful.
 Any commitments (for example, January AS assessments) that might prevent the applicant
from attending an interview on a particular day.
 Any factors, such as personal circumstances, that may have affected, or might affect their
performance. Information about any special needs and other requirements. Do not give
information about an applicant's health or disability without their agreement.

Students are asked to state any disabilities or special needs in a separate part of the
application. Students are not obliged to disclose such information on their application;
however, early disclosure gives the universities and colleges more time to prepare and arrange
the support that a student may need. Some referees may wish to mention the student's learning
difference or disability in an academic context, such as how they currently cope at school or
college.

Many courses provide details of the selection criteria and attributes they are looking for in
their prospectuses, websites, or Entry Profiles. This may be a helpful starting point,
particularly if you are constructing a reference for a course that you have little prior
experience in recommending an applicant for.
When writing a reference for any applicant, including those outside the UK, please remember
that, under the Data Protection Act, the applicant can ask for a copy of the reference and any
other personal information that we have about them.

If the application, including the reference, has any information missing, or has any false or
misleading information, we and the universities and colleges have the right to cancel the
application and withdraw any offers without reimbursing the application fee.

Predicted grades

You only need to enter information in this section if the applicant is currently studying or is
awaiting results. Each pending qualification that the applicant has entered on their application
will be listed in the reference section. Please select / enter the predicted grade for each
qualification listed. If you cannot provide predicted grades, this section can be left blank.

It is helpful if referees are honest and clear about particular subjects students are having
difficulty with. If a low predicted grade is accompanied by a glowing reference it can be
difficult to see the relationship between the two. Therefore it is useful if referees are able to
say in the reference why a student is achieving this grade, whether a higher grade is within
their grasp and whether they have the potential and/or motivation to reach this higher grade.
This can help universities and colleges take into account a student's potential as well as their
previous performance.

If a student's predicted grade is not a reflection of their true abilities, it is useful to state why
the student has been disadvantaged and what their intellectual potential ought to allow them to
get. This is also true in cases where a student is likely to improve in the time between the
application being made and the exams taken.

How to provide the reference

The reference should be written using a standard word-processing package and should not
exceed 4,000 characters (this includes spaces) or 47 lines (this includes blank lines),
whichever is the shorter. Unfortunately, you cannot use bold, italics, underlining or foreign
characters (such as á, ë, õ) in the reference. If these types of formatting or foreign characters
are used, they will be removed from the text when your reference is pasted onto the
application and saved.

If you are entering the reference into the application system, we recommend that you save
your contact details before adding your reference. Please make sure that you save your
reference at regular intervals because the application system will time-out after 35
minutes of inactivity and any unsaved material will be lost.

Please save a copy of your reference for your records.

 WRITING A UCAS REFERENCE

Guidance for referees

If the individual applicant’s situation differs in some way, please give details.

Please give an assessment of the suitability of the applicant for the higher education courses that they have
applied to and, where possible, include the following points.

 Existing achievement, with particular reference to subjects relating to the courses for which they have
applied.
 In the case of applicants taking GCE qualifications, you may want to comment on any variations from
normal policy over the certification of AS. In the case of students who have certificated AS but who are
intending to resit one or more units in order to maximise their A level grade in the subject concerned, it
would be helpful to mention this with the predicted grade.
 Potential, including predicted results or performance.
 Motivation and commitment towards the chosen course or courses.
 Any relevant skills achievement, whether certificated or not.
 Powers of analysis and independent thought.
 Relevant curriculum enrichment and other activities.
 Relevant work experience, work placements, voluntary work and so on.
 Proposed career plan.
 Where relevant, their suitability for training for a particular profession, for example, teaching.
 Any factors which may have affected, or will affect in the future, their performance, for example, personal
circumstances.
 Information about any special needs and other requirements.
 On an optional basis, any information about performance in individual units of qualifications, for example,
GCE AS and A levels, that the applicant has not already given in the personal statement.
 For UK applicants, how the school or college is involved in widening participation or Gifted and Talented
initiatives, Partnerships for Progression and so on. If applicants have mentioned any of these activities in
their personal statement, comments on their involvement may also be helpful.
 Any commitments, for example, January AS assessments, which might prevent the applicant from going
to an interview on a particular day.

Please remember that even though universities and colleges cannot see what other choices the applicant has
made, they will all see the personal statement and reference. The reference should be written in a way that
supports the applicant’s intentions for progressing to higher education as directly as possible. This may be difficult
if the applicant has chosen a wide range of different courses, and applicants may need advice about this.

When you write a reference for an applicant, please remember that, under the Data Protection Act, the
applicant can ask for a copy of the reference and any other personal information that we have about
them.

If the applicant is on an Access course or other one-year course, you may not have known them long enough to
write a full reference. In this case, please say so and send a temporary reference with details of how the course is
assessed and the number of credits that are awarded. You should send a more detailed reference to the
universities or colleges next spring.

If the applicant is still studying, you should give a predicted overall achievement. If you want, you can also
comment on the student’s performance in any units they have taken so far. You should also explain if the student
has yet to decide on his or her final qualification (for example, maths or applied maths, A level or AS).
Reference - practical tips

Your referee must write your reference in English (or it can be in Welsh if you're only
applying to Welsh universities and colleges).

Most references will contain the following information:

 their opinion of your suitability for a particular profession (eg you've demonstrated
your dedication and calm nature for nursing)
 your proposed career plan - if you have one - so make sure your referee is aware of
your career ideas and any work experience
 your performance in individual modules or course components: for example, if you
were one mark from a higher grade, they may highlight this
 anything that may have affected your academic work (eg an ongoing illness)
 any other personal circumstances which may have affected, or will affect, your
performance
 any specific needs you may have, like a disability or learning difficulties, and how you
cope with these at school or college.
School/college reference
Grades are not everything and the school/
college reference is useful because it tells us
about an applicant’s abilities and potential.
Comments from subject specialists that show
evidence of intellectual flexibility and
curiosity, analytic ability, logical reasoning and
the ability to learn quickly are most useful.
The majority of our applicants are predicted
to achieve top grades in the qualifications
they are studying and words such as
‘outstanding’ appear in very many references.
Instead, it is helpful if remarks about
academic performance and potential are
made as specific as possible. The following
can be particularly useful:
• comments from subject teachers
indicating a rank order in class (such as
‘top of 20’ or ‘in the top four out of 23’) or
a comparison with current or previous
applicants (for instance ‘one of our top 10
university applicants this year’)
• updated information about an applicant’s
progress or personal circumstances, as
long as it is received before the
December interview period
• where an applicant has underachieved at
GCSE/IGCSE or AS level, the reasons why
this might have happened
• any health or personal circumstances that
might affect performance at interview
• evidence of a willingness to explore and
discuss ideas outside the confines of the
subject specification, if applying for a
subject studied at school/college
• evidence of steps taken to find out about
the subject, for a non-school/college
subject
For applicants with a particularly difficult
educational or personal background an
additional reference for the Cambridge
Special Access Scheme should be completed
(see p5).
Please note that there is no need to write a
special reference for Cambridge as we receive
a copy of the UCAS reference you supply.
However, if you wish to make any
Cambridge-specific comments you are most
welcome to send these direct to the
Admissions Tutor at the College to which the
student applied or to the Cambridge
Admissions Office in the case of open
applicants. Please ensure that the applicant’s
name, course and UCAS Personal ID are
clearly stated.
It's a reference, not rocket science.
He should try and sell you the best way he can, including qualities you have as well as how well you
would cope at a different university, in a different course. It is also essential to show that you have
the drive so he has to include any previous related work and projects you have undertaken.

Yeah, just about a page, five paragraphs or so, mentioning your achievements (barring those
listed already in the PS, though I guess it would look more stylish if someone else said how
great you are as opposed to doing it yourself), your personality, your enthusiasm and your
academic record. Some are insanely dramatic and others are fairly sober, it depends on the
institution and the person writing it. Typical comments would be 'So and so has demonstrated
great improvement/enthusiasm...', 'a joy to teach', 'highly motivated', 'x out of y pupils', 'top 5
in UK at...'. I've heard schools with a reputation for honesty have theirs taken more seriously
than others which profess to be a genius factory, but it wouldn't usually be the most important
aspect of the application. Few people will be able to tell you much though, as most schools
don't let you see it.

My ref mentioned info about the school (size, type, results) and then some fluff about me being
really great , also gave a bit of info about my UMS marks, 'got above x/300 in all y subjects' or
something like that, as my AS weren't cashed in so the uni didn't know my grades (that shouldn't
matter this year as I think the uni's are given the module grades). They also said I was the most
talented student to ever attend sixth form at the school, which sounds impressive but really isn't,
and I'm sure anyone who read it took it with a pinch of salt.

One point where the ref might actually help is if you go to a poor school, if your school gets really bad
results and you are like the only person to achieve anything from that school, then there is probably
a tendency for them to say 'Do we want the straight A guy who's done it all themselves through
adversity, or do we want the straight A guy who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth'
 Reference Examples

Context

Each student was accepted on the evidence of their motivation, academic potential, and their
awareness of the demands of higher education. We hope that you will consider this student for
aplace on their chosen course. We will be pleased to provide further details of the programme as
well as an updated reference at a later date.

Performance and Grades

Maryam is a confident and perceptive student. Her written work benefits from a commendable
economy of delivery and a relevant, direct approach to the question. Her factual understanding is
immediate even when issues are complex and her thoughtful contributions in class and insightful
coursework are commendable. Her recent presentation on homeostasis was clearly based on a
detailed reading of the subject

Personal Qualities

Brihana is an exemplary student, hard working and extremely well organised. She meets all
deadlines and can be relied upon to complete any task with the minimum of fuss. Displaying
quiet ambition, she is unfailingly pleasant, polite and helpful.

Overall recommendation

Helena is polite, thoughtful and hardworking. She has developed good rapport with, and is
supportive of, her peers. She has given great consideration to her chosen area of study at HE
and has decided to defer for one year to care for her new born child. Her enthusiasm for
Nursing is clear from her success on the Access course. We fully support her informed
decisions and highly recommend her for your consideration.