Academic requirements for Undergraduate Students (Home and EU)

General Academic Requirements

There are different entry qualifications for each programme. Some programmes require you to have a certain amount of knowledge in a subject before you begin the degree programme – this is called a ‘subject requirement’. Other programmes do not have any specific subject requirements. All programmes will, however, expect you to have reached a certain standard in your education and will ask you to achieve certain grades in your examinations. Most programmes have a standard offer so that you know in advance what you are likely to need. Please note that even if you have the minimum entry qualifications, you are not necessarily guaranteed a place on the degree programme.

What you will need to gain admission to a degree programme depends on several factors, such as the popularity of the programme and the qualifications you are offering. Here are some comments on the most common qualifications:

A levels/AS levels

The standard offer for almost all of our programmes is expressed in terms of the 'UCAS tariff'. Please visit the UCAS website and follow the links to the Tariff Table. Many of our programmes have two standard offers – including either three or four subjects. If you are taking four AS levels in Year 12 you may count the grades towards your final total, but note that each subject can be counted once only.

If you are not taking a standard set of qualifications (e.g. four AS levels followed by three A2), please don’t be put off from applying – we will tailor our offer to your qualifications.

New Diploma qualification

The University of Reading considers the new Advanced (Level 3) Diploma as being an equivalent level qualification to A levels and therefore satisfying the general requirements for entry to an undergraduate programme. Specific requirements will depend on the exact programme you are applying for. Specific Additional/Specialised Learning may be asked for.

Key Skills

We welcome evidence of Key Skills in your portfolio. We will not be including Key Skills points in our standard offers but we may include them for some applicants. We will certainly be taking account of Key Skills achievements when deciding whether to offer a place, and again when final results are available. At the same time we are aware that some students are not able to offer Key Skills and we will not discriminate against you if you are in this position.

Scottish Framework Qualifications

The UCAS tariff can be used for Highers and Advanced Highers as well as AS levels and A levels. Please see the UCAS Tariff Table. You will see that you can be admitted either on Highers alone, or on Highers plus Advanced Highers. Please note that each different subject can be counted once only. If our standard offer includes a grade to be achieved at AS level or A level, you may be asked to achieve a certain score in the equivalent subject at Higher or Advanced Higher.

Irish Leaving Certificates

The UCAS Tariff can be used for the Irish Leaving Certificate. Candidates will be expected to have five subjects at Higher Level.

International Baccalaureate (IB)

We welcome students with the full IB diploma. We may ask for the complete diploma with certain scores achieved in Higher level subjects. If our standard offer includes a grade to be achieved at A level, you may be asked to achieve a certain score in that subject at Higher level.

European Baccalaureate (EB)

Students with the EB are very welcome to apply. Our standard offer ranges between 60% and 80%. We may occasionally also ask you to achieve a certain grade in a particular subject.

Welsh Baccalaureate (WB)

We are happy to consider applicants with the WB Advanced Diploma. The University requires satisfactory completion of the compulsory core as well as options chosen from General Certificate of Education (GCE), National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) and Business and Technology Educational Council (BTEC) National qualifications. The core is ungraded and bears a score of 120 tariff points which are only awarded when you achieve the Advanced Diploma.

BTEC National Diploma

We are happy to consider applicants with BTEC National Diplomas (and Certificates). We will normally ask you to achieve a certain number of UCAS tariff points.

BTEC Higher National Diploma

We are happy to consider applicants with BTEC HND and HNC qualifications. Please note that we do not automatically admit students into the second year of a programme though we are always pleased to consider such requests. If you are interested in second year admission, please be prepared to supply full specifications of your current course so we can check that what you have studied on the curriculum is compatible. We will normally ask you to achieve a certain number of UCAS tariff points. We may sometimes ask you to achieve Distinction or Merit in particular named modules.

Open University

Students with 60 points from the Open University meet our normal minimum requirements. If you have 120 points, we may be able to consider you for admission into the second year. Please contact us if you would like further information or advice relating to your circumstances.

Access Courses

We are happy to consider applicants with Access Course qualifications. The Access Course must be properly validated (e.g. by the Open College Network). We may specify the number of modules to be passed and in some cases will ask for particular subjects to be passed as well.

GCSE

Some of our programmes require you to have passed GCSE at grade C or above in certain subjects and this is shown in the ‘Fact File’ box for each degree course. In general we expect students to have at least four GCSE passes at grade C or above.