After you apply

For most postgraduate taught applications, once we have received all the necessary supporting documentation, we aim to notify you of our decision within 20 working days from the date when we acknowledge receipt of your application. However, this can take longer at peak periods or if you have not supplied an email address or if we need to refer your application to the Academic College for a decision.

Can I appeal a decision?

If your application has been unsuccessful you can appeal the decision by contacting us via our enquiry form. This must be done within a maximum of three months of receiving your decision. You need to include details of the programme for which you applied, your Exeter Reference Number, and your grounds for appeal. You can only appeal against a decision once.

If you have been offered a place at Exeter, you will have received an offer email and a formal offer letter. Your offer letter will include information on your programme of study, tuition fees, deposits, your start date and any academic/non-academic conditions you may need to satisfy. Please read the letter carefully, as it will contain all of the information you will need to make your decision regarding your offer.

Your offer will be either Conditional or Unconditional:

• Conditional means that you have not yet satisfied our academic, English language or any other entry requirements. Details of our offer conditions and how you can satisfy these requirements (including paying your deposit) will be given in your offer letter.
• Unconditional means that you satisfy all our academic, English language or other conditions

Responding to your offer

As Exeter is a popular university, to secure your place you need to respond to your offer in writing or by paying a deposit if it is required. You should accept your offer (and pay a deposit if required) by the deadline stated in your offer letter or as soon as possible in order to secure your place. For most programmes, we are happy to consider extending the deadline if required, but ask that you to contact us as soon as possible requesting an extension and advising of your preferred date. If we have not heard from you by the stated deadline or by the official start date of your programme, whichever is earlier, we reserve the right to withdraw your application.   

To accept and secure your place

If you have an offer for a full-time taught postgraduate programme you will need to pay your deposit to secure your place. You should pay your deposit by the deadline even if you have not yet met all the conditions of your offer. In the meantime you can initially accept your offer on your Gateway.

If you have an offer for a part-time or research degree, you should accept your offer on your Gateway to confirm your place.

Our deadline for meeting all the conditions of your offer is normally 31 August if you are applying for entry in September. This date is particularly important for international students due to visa application deadlines. This means that you will need to supply the required documentation demonstrating that you have met any outstanding conditions in terms of academic requirements, English language and/or references as detailed in your offer letter, or inform us by 31 August what conditions you have still to meet and the date by which you expect to be able to meet them. 

If we do not hear from you by 31 August and you have outstanding conditions remaining we reserve the right to either withdraw or defer your application to the following year.

In order to receive a formal unconditional offer letter and, where needed, a Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies which will enable you to apply for a Student Visa (if applicable) you will need to meet:

1. Academic conditions by providing copies of degree certificates, transcripts and references as explained in your Conditional offer letter.
2. Non-academic conditions such as a DBS check
3. The required standard of English language competence by providing an English language test certificate of results which meet our requirements shown here. 

Certificates and transcripts

Please provide us with scanned or certified copies of you certificates, transcripts and/or English language qualifications via The Gateway. For admissions purposes, to demonstrate you have met our requirements, we do not require originals.

Should you choose to post original documents to us you will need to notify the University within three months if you wish them to be returned to you. In addition, we ask that you provide a cover sheet noting your Exeter reference number.

Offer holders who successfully complete Pre-Sessional English course at INTO University of Exeter and meet the requirements for progression to their chosen degree are not required to undertake an additional IELTS or TOEFL test. Please note that we do not accept pre-sessional courses delivered by other INTO centres or organisations.

We may require you to attend an interview before we issue you with your CAS.   If you are required to attend an interview, we will send you an email with details of the time and date and joining instructions.  The meeting will take place via Microsoft Teams.

The purpose of the Pre-CAS interview is to assess that an applicant has a genuine intent to study at the University of Exeter,  it is not to assess academic abilities. Attendance at an interview is mandatory and we will be unable to issue a CAS until the interview has taken place. Applicants required to attend a Pre-CAS interview will be sent further details once they have an unconditional place and where applicable a deposit has been paid. 

Requests for deferral will be considered on a case by case basis.

Applicants wishing to defer will need to put their request in writing and submit it via our enquiry form (please ensure you quote your Exeter Reference Number – which can be found on the top of your original offer email). We aim to notify applicants of an outcome within 10 working days (please note, that for research applicants the timeframe may be longer as we will need to check supervisors' availability).

Applicants are only permitted to defer entry once. Subsequent to this, a new application will be required which will be considered in line with others applying for entry in that year.

Deadline for requesting a deferral

Start date	Deadline
Programmes commencing in September	30 September
All other start dates	Within 4 weeks of the start date of your programme

Applicants who do not request a deferral within this timeframe will be required to reapply, as your original application and documentation will not be retained.

We guarantee University accommodation to all new unaccompanied international postgraduates for the full academic year starting in September as long as you apply by 31 July in your year of entry.* Once you have firmly accepted your place (for full-time taught postgraduate programmes you will need to pay a tuition fee deposit to firmly accept your place), you are eligible to apply for University accommodation.

*No such guarantee exists for further years of study. University accommodation is owned, managed or approved by the University. You are defined as an international student only if you pay international student fees.

Find out more about accommodation for postgraduate and research students.

If you are joining a taught postgraduate course which starts in January, please see our dedicated webpage for all relevant accommodation information.

Exeter Accommodation Office
Phone: +44 (0) 1392 724724
Email: ExeterAO@exeter.ac.uk

Cornwall Accommodation Office
+44 (0) 1326 253639
Email: accommodation@fxplus.ac.uk

Details of registration, including collecting your Unicard and registering for an IT account, are sent out to new students from August onwards.

If you are a UK/EU student and have not sent copies of your documents to the University previously, you will be required to present your passport, transcripts, degree certificate and (if required) English Language certificate.

If you are an international student, even if you have presented these documents previously, you are required to present your visa or entry clearance form, along with your passport, original or certified copies of your transcripts, degree certificate and (if required) English Language certificate.

All certificates, transcripts or Certificates of Qualification submitted must give the final degree classification, grade, percentage or CGPA awarded. Where a certificate/transcript is not in English an official translation must be provided.

All your documents need to be seen and verified before you will be permitted to register.

If you are a graduate of the University of Exeter**, you are not required to submit evidence of your qualification since we hold a record of your degree.

** Please note this does not apply to degrees taken at another institution but validated by the University.

Original certificates and transcripts

Original certificates (not copies) must meet the following criteria to be accepted:

1. University certificates/transcripts need to be on official headed and stamped paper.
2. Original certificate(s) of qualification. Must clearly show;

• the students name; and
• the title of the award; and
• the date of the award; and
• the name of the awarding institution

3. Transcript of results. Must clearly show:

• the students name; and
• the name of the academic institution; and
• your course title; and
• the confirmation of the award

The University of Exeter requests that applicants do not send original documents in advance of arrival at the University as we cannot guarantee their return.

Certified copies

Certified copies will only be accepted if they meet the following criteria:

The document must be certified by professional person or someone well-respected in your community. The University of Exeter will accept the following:

• bank or building society official
• councillor
• dentist
• police officer
• solicitor
• teacher or lecturer
• official authorised Agent of the University of Exeter

The person you ask must not be:

• related to you
• living at the same address
• in a relationship with you

The person will need to certify the copy by:

• writing ‘certified to be a true copy of the original seen by me’ on the document
• signing and dating it
• printing their name under the signature
• adding their occupation, address and telephone number

The person certifying the document may charge you a fee.

Official translations

Where a document is not in English or Welsh, the original must be accompanied by a fully certified translation provided by a professional translator/translation company. 

This translation must include:

• details of the translator/translation company’s credentials; and
• confirmation that it is an accurate translation of the original document; and
• the translator/translation company’s contact details.

It must also be dated and include the original signature of the translator or an authorised official of the translation company.

Translation companies will charge you a fee.