Use of contextual data (2025 Entry)

The University is committed to reducing and eliminating barriers to entry for students with the potential to succeed at St Andrews. We seek to ensure that no student with the potential to do well is disadvantaged when we assess their application by their social and economic background, whether this is related to their place of education, individual circumstances or residence. We do this using relevant pre-entry information, clear entry requirements and robust assessment methods, appropriate to each application cohort.

Find out more about our commitment to contextual admissions and use of contextual data:

Undergraduate admissions
Postgraduate admissions

Undergraduate (2025 Entry)

An introduction to undergraduate contextual admissions

The University of St Andrews has a limited number of places it can offer for undergraduate study each year and not all who meet all our entry requirements can be offered a place. It is therefore important that we set out our principles for assessing applications so you know what you can expect from us.

We are committed to the Universities Scotland guarantee of fairness when applying to a university in Scotland, as outlined on the Universities Scotland website.

All admissions decisions at the University of St Andrews are made in line with the University’s Admissions Policy.

The University’s ambition is to see equity of access across Scotland and the wider United Kingdom, regardless of socio-economic background.

We pledge to make an offer to all first-degree applicants who:
- declare a looked after or care experienced background.
          or
- reside in the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland as indicated by the SIMD2020 and attend or recently attended a school which has lower than average progression to higher education.
This promise is given if you can demonstrate the desire to study the subject, if the minimum asking rates within all specified required subjects are met and, and if relevant to the course you are applying for, there is success in additional external testing (e.g. UCAT for Medicine) or interview.

To be eligible for the guarantee, the entry requirements need to be achieved by the applicant in their first attempt at an entry qualification. (e.g. qualifications achieved in resits are not considered)

The use of contextual information alone does not result in an automatic offer of a place being made to an applicant.
The decision-making process is based on individual applicant details contained with their application form and any further evidence requested to verify individual circumstances as outlined below.

Contextual information is collated centrally for all applicants with a Home Funded or Rest of the UK (RUK) fee status. This information together with applicant data are used by Admissions Officers to put the achievements of each individual applicant into context when selecting the most appropriate candidates for places at the University of St Andrews.

Initially, we will bring the applications that meet our contextual criteria to the attention of our Admissions Officers making decisions.

The proportion or number of applicants we identify is not set in advance, although we monitor it for the purposes of planning. The proportion of such applicants will vary between academic subjects and from year to year depending on who applies.

All applicants will be expected to meet at least the minimum entrance requirements as set by the academic Schools, with the contextual data being used in combination with the principles and selection criteria contained in the Admissions Policy.

All applications that meet, or can meet, the minimum entrance requirements and contain all the required information and further evidence requested, will be assessed by an Admissions Officer using academic results, personal statements and references alongside additional testing and interviews where required for specific programmes.
The University of St Andrews uses contextual data for applicants in the UK to indicate which of our undergraduate academic entry requirements are most likely to be relevant. Based on the information that you provide, this indicator will tell you which category of entry requirements you will need to look at on our subject pages.

There are three categories of entry requirements:
- Standard: Unless your application meets the criteria outlined in this statement, you will need these grades to be considered.
- Minimum: If your application indicates that you meet the criteria outlined in this statement and this is verified by us, you will need these grades to be considered.
- Gateway: If you are a Home Funded applicant in Scotland, your application indicates that you meet the criteria outlined in our entrance requirements, and this is verified by us, you may also be considered eligible for a Gateway or Supported Pathways programme.
Information provided in this indicator  tool may be subject to later verification during the application cycle in line with our Admissions Policy and this Use of Contextual Data statement. When applications are submitted, a further assessment will take place to determine whether applicants are eligible for minimum entry requirements or a guaranteed place.

The data used in our entry indicator and for our contextualised admissions process for September 2025 was updated and is fixed on 5 September 2024.
There are three main types of contextual data or indicators that our Admissions Officers will consider when reaching their decisions on an application. These are laid out below.

1. Socio-economic diversity indicators

We wish to ensure that those admitted based on their potential to do well at St Andrews come from the widest possible cross section of society. To ensure we achieve this, we build diversity factors into our admissions process in the following way:
- Specific geo-demographic data will be considered using the applicant’s home postcode. We use the Scottish Index of Multiple Declaration (SIMD), the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) applicable to the area of residence in the UK, and ACORN data at the date of publication of this statement.
- SIMD and IMD are governmental postcode look-up tools which identify areas of disadvantage. If the applicant is living in the lowest 40% of these, they will have their applications identified for admissions officers.
- ACORN is also a system that uses individual UK postcodes. ACORN is widely recognised and used by both the public and private sectors. Where the applicant’s postcode falls into ACORN groups four or five (Moderate Means and Hard Pressed) their application will be identified for admissions officers (except for Medicine applications).
- Data Source:
2. School or college attainment and progression indicators

We wish to ensure entrants with the greatest potential are selected for the most appropriate course at the University of St Andrews; we will consider the academic performance of the applicant shown through their academic achievements and the educational environment in which this education took place using: 
- Specific data on progression to Higher Education relating to the school the applicant attends or most recently attended.
- Data source:
  - Scotland
- Specific attainment data relating to the school the applicant attends or attended.
- Data source:
- POLAR4 is a classification of regions into quintiles based on the rate of participation in higher education. Applicants from the lowest two quintiles will be identified.
- Data Source:
  - Office for Students
3. Individual circumstance indicators

To ensure that we can take account the individual contextual circumstances of applicants, we consider the following criteria, except for where the specific entrance requirements of a programme state otherwise.
- the applicant has indicated that they are care-experienced, and this is verified by Admissions using our definition of care experience and the required evidence is provided as outlined here.
- the applicant has indicated that they are a young carer and are verified by Admissions using our definition of young carer and can provide the evidence outlined here.
- the applicant has indicated that they are estranged and are verified by Admissions using our definition of estranged and can provide the evidence outlined here.
- the applicant has indicated that they are a refugee, asylum seeker or displaced person and are verified by Admissions using our definition and can provide the evidence outlined here.
- the applicant has indicated they are from a group known to be underrepresented in higher education or in certain subject areas or who are known to have experienced disadvantages that may limit academic achievement. (e.g. Gypsies, Traveller, Roma Showman, and Boaters communities) This is subject to verification by Admissions.
- the applicant has indicated that they have been involved in activities that have been organised to raise aspiration to attend higher education (for example, Sutton Trust Summer Schools, University of St Andrews Outreach programmes, or government-supported initiatives) 
These individual circumstances will be determined from the application and may be subject to further verification checks. Declaration of these circumstances by an applicant does not result in an automatic offer of a place.

Postgraduate (2025 Entry)

The University of St Andrews has committed to reducing and eliminating barriers to entry to postgraduate degrees.

We are undertaking work to widen access to postgraduate study and to support this we introduced a contextual information section into our taught postgraduate (PGT) application form in 2023. The responses to these questions will be made available to our academic admissions officers and can be used to put the achievements of each individual applicant into context when assessing PGT applications.

The information that an applicant can provide at the point of application includes:

the applicant can declare that they are care-experienced,
the applicant can declare that they area refugee, asylum seeker or displaced person
the applicant can declare that they have caring responsibilities
the applicant can declare that they were in receipt of a means tested scholarship or maintenance grant as an undergraduate student?
the applicant can indicate where they undertook their secondary education
the applicant can declare the home postcode from which they applied to their undergraduate study
the applicant can declare if they were the first generation in their family to undertake undergraduate study
the applicant can declare if they were involved in any national widening access schemes to higher education prior to their undergraduate study e.g. Sutton Trust, Reach etc.

It is the intention of the University of St Andrews to reflect upon the responses provided by our PGT applicants to improve our understanding of the diversity of our applicants and support our internal planning for postgraduate recruitment and student support for 2025 entry and beyond.

For 2025 entry the responses to the specific contextual information questions in our application will be available to our academic admissions officers when assessing PGT applications. The declaration of contextual information alone, which may be subject to verification by Admissions, does not result in an automatic offer of a place being made to an applicant.

Use of contextual data (2025 Entry)

Undergraduate (2025 Entry)

An introduction to undergraduate contextual admissions

Our ambition and our pledge

How does our undergraduate contextual admissions work?

How do we decide the entry requirements an applicant needs to meet?

What contextual data do we use to flag our applications?

Postgraduate (2025 Entry)