We know waiting for a decision on your application can be an anxious time. We hope some of the guidance here will help answer some of the questions you may have while waiting to hear back from King's.

If you have not yet applied to King’s, please see our How to apply: postgraduate research courses webpage.

How do I know that King's has received my application?

When you submit your postgraduate taught application to King's via King’s Apply, you will receive an email from noreplyap@kcl.ac.uk confirming submission. You will also be able to see your application is submitted on your account’s homepage.

How long will it take before I hear back from King's?

The selection procedure will be indicated on the relevant course entry on the course finder webpage.

Depending on the time of year, it may also take longer to process applications, particularly around deadline periods. Please ensure that your online application form is as complete as possible at the time of submission to avoid unnecessary delays and ask your referee(s) to be ready to submit a reference promptly.

Please also be aware there can be other factors that result in it taking longer for you to receive a final decision, for example, when your interview is scheduled, obtaining necessary approvals for funding etc.

You will receive emails from noreplyap@kcl.ac.uk notifying you to check your King’s Apply account whenever there are an updates or messages sent to you. We strongly encourage you to save this as a contact so any emails do not go in to your junk/spam folders.

When a decision has been made, you will be emailed to log in to your King’s Apply account. The decision will be in the 'Application status' box on the 'Application overview' screen.

Will I be interviewed for my course?

It is the responsibility of the faculty to have transparent selection procedures in place in order to accept students onto postgraduate research courses. Following an initial screening, a decision will be made to make an application unsuccessful or to be progressed to an interview before an offer can be made.

If you are contacted regarding an interview, this will be via email (outside of King’s Apply) and could be face-to-face or, for some international students, by another communication method as deemed appropriate by the faculty.

How will I know when King's has made a decision?

When a decision has been made, you will be emailed to log in to your King’s Apply account. The decision will be in the 'Application status' box on the 'Application overview' screen.

Can I apply for a King’s Pre-sessional English course?

You may wish to consider taking a King’s Pre-sessional course, which will provide you with academic and language skills, and, for those who receive a conditional offer, is an alternative route to taking an external English language test to meet an English language condition.

These take place in the summer before the new academic year.

To submit a Pre-sessional application, you will need to log in to your King’s Apply account and select the 'New application' option. Your Pre-sessional application will then sit alongside your postgraduate application on your King’s Apply homepage.

How do I contact Admissions?

Contact the Admissions team by sending us a message via your King’s Apply account. We ask that you select the most relevant message category if you have more than one query, rather than sending multiple messages, except in the case of CAS/Visa messages as these will be directed to our Visa Compliance team.

Please note during busy periods there may be a delay in responding to you, but we will reply to you as soon as we can.

If there are delays in processing your application, we will aim to keep you updated. You can send us a message via your King’s Apply account to query the status of your application using the 'Application status/update' message category. If we have not responded to your message, this does not mean we are not assessing your application in the meantime, and you do not need to send a further follow message unless you have a new query.

We will contact you if we need further information to assess your application and provide you with a decision as soon as possible.

How do I send and receive messages on King’s Apply?

Once you have logged into King's Apply, please click through to the course that you are trying to access (the links will be under the section called ‘Current applications’).

Then, from the menu on the right, select: ‘View and Send messages’ use this to create a new message or to upload a document or attachment. This will go directly to the team within the Admissions Office who have responsibility for processing your application.

If you receive a message, you will be notified via email to check your King’s Apply account. Clicking into the same section: ‘View and Send messages’ will take you to any new or old messages that you’ve received from the admissions team at King’s, which you can click on to read and respond to.

Can I change the course I wish to study after I apply?

Your application on King’s Apply is specific to a course, mode of study (full-time/part-time) and year of entry.

• If you wish to be considered for a different course you will need to submit a new application through King's Apply, and be considered alongside other applicants for that course.
• If you wish to change your mode of study (from full-time to part-time) on the same course, please contact the Admissions Office through King's Apply for advice.

My login details aren't working - what should I do?

To retrieve your password, please go to King's Apply and underneath the ‘Login’ button you will see ‘Forgotten password?'.

Following this link will take you through to a password retrieval process. Your password reset link will be sent to you by email and will be active for 48 hours.

If you’re having other difficulties with the password retrieval function, please follow the instructions in the password reset link. Please make sure to include your full name, your date of birth and your SITS number (if applicable) in your email.

Please also ensure that you contact us from the same email address that you used when applying (this would be your King's Apply username), as we won’t be able to send any login details to a third party.

I’m having difficulty using King’s Apply – who can I contact for system support?

Please contact our King's Advisors for help.

How do I upload a document after I have applied?

Once you have logged into King's Apply, please click through to the course that you are trying to access (the links will be under the section called ‘Current applications’). Then, from the menu on the right, select: ‘View and Send Messages’.

Use this to create a new message, and upload a document to attach to this message.

Please name any files you upload clearly e.g. BSc degree certificate/transcript/CV.

Experiencing issues with your upload?

• If you have a file that is over 3MB in size, please reduce the resolution of your file (as long as any writing is still legible) or split the file into multiple pages (Page 1, Page 2 etc.).
• If you’re working from a Mac, please add file types to your file names (i.e. add .doc for Microsoft Word-type files, .pdf for all PDFs and .jpg for images).

Uploading your documents on King’s Apply is the most efficient way for these documents to be considered in your application as it will be received directly by the admissions team that has responsibility for processing your application.

There is a mistake in my application form - how do I correct this?

If you have submitted the application form, please send a message through the King's Apply portal. The message should clearly detail where the mistake is. For example, if the referee contact details are incorrect, the message should make clear that the mistake concerns the 'References' section. You should then bring attention to the incorrect information and provide the correct information in the same message. The admissions team will endeavour to assess your application based on this corrected information.

I would like to attach some new information to my postgraduate application. Where should I send it?

If your application has been submitted and is under consideration, you should not send any additional documentation to what is required as part of the application. The Admissions Office will contact you through King’s Apply if they need further documents to assess your application.

All information relating to your application should be sent to Admissions. Please do not send documents to academic departments as applications are processed centrally.

Documents can be submitted online via King’s Apply. This is the quickest and easiest way to contact the team.

How do I update my personal details?

If you created your account on King’s Apply to submit an application form, and your details change afterwards, you can make a number of changes yourself.

Click on your name in the top right corner of King’s Apply:

• Edit my account: change your email address, which will then change your login ID to King’s Apply.
• Change password: you will need to confirm your current password before creating a new one. Your password must be at least 12 characters long, contain at least one number and symbol and have a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters. Previously used passwords are not permitted.
• Update contact information: change your permanent address and correspondence address and phone numbers (if they are different).
• Security information: King’s Apply utilises multi-factor authentication (MFA) as a mandatory requirement on the system. This adds another layer of security to your account for your protection.
• Marketing preferences: As your application status progresses, other areas of the university may be in touch to communicate with you, including important information to support you or additional information to help you during your decision-making process. You will be given the opportunity to manage your preferences here e.g. email/text message/phone.

What can’t I change on King’s Apply?

Once you have registered your account, you will not be able to amend your title, forename, last name or date of birth yourself.

If you need to change any of these details, please submit your application with your existing details and send us a message on the 'View and Send messages' screen for your application to request the required updates.

Please attach supporting documents to your message so we can verify your change of personal details. You may wish to consider providing scans of your passport, marriage certificate or Deed Poll certificate. If it is your surname that has changed, please ensure that you enter your previous surname in the 'Previous Last Name' section.

My application was unsuccessful. Can I find out why?

You can find a summary of the reason your application was unsuccessful through King's Apply portal. For further detailed feedback, please send a formal request through King's Apply and the Admissions Office will be able to give you further advice.

Further details of feedback and appeal procedures can be found on our policy webpage.

I have received an offer to study at King’s. What are my next steps?

Congratulations on receiving an offer! We hope you will accept your offer. We have a few dedicated webpages for our offer holders:

• Important information for offer holders: Take a look at this webpage, which has been written by the Admissions Office to support you with the remainder of your application journey with us before the enrolment process. We have guidance on how to accept your offer, how to be made unconditional if your offer is conditional, CAS number information and more.

Can I study at King's while I'm on another course elsewhere?

University academic regulations do not permit you to study a course with us while also actively studying on another programme at another university (except for Study Abroad students) or at King's (except for the AKC, those intercalating from an MBBS/BDS if approved by the respective Deans of Education, or those on a MD or PhD course to study a PGCert only).

If you are currently taking qualifications elsewhere - including distance learning courses - and you are successful in receiving an offer for study at King's, you will be asked to provide evidence at registration that you have completed any previous studies or that you have interrupted/suspended your other study.

Further details can be found in the King’s Academic Manual (2.15-2.18 under “Registration” in the 2024/5 version).

What are the tuition fees for a PhD course? When do I need to pay the fees?

Tuition fees for your course can be found by using out course finder webpage, find your course entry, and then see the 'Fees & Funding' tab.

The fees listed on the postgraduate prospectus are for the first year of a course only - if your course is more than one year in duration and continues into subsequent years, the fees for those years may differ. Some courses (e.g. part-time) last more than a single year and it is therefore likely that tuition fees for your course will increase annually, reflecting the changes in costs of delivering your course and any changes in government policy or regulation.

King’s reserves the right to increase fees annually. Tuition fee increases may only sometimes apply to self-funding overseas fees status students, but not to home fee status students as fees are subject to a cap imposed by regulatory requirements.

Where such increases are necessary, King's will publish the new fees on its website not less than 3 months’ notice before the start of the academic year to which the fee increase is intended to apply.

Any tuition fee increase for current students shall not exceed a 6% (six percent) increase (or in accordance with the preceding November’s rate of CPI if higher) on the previous academic year's tuition fee for the course in question, subject at all times to the tuition fees not exceeding any cap imposed by Government from time to time. Please see King’s Terms & Conditions for students for more information.

You will be sent an invoice for your first year’s tuition fees after you have enrolled on the course.

For most courses, you can pay your year's tuition fees in one or two equal instalments. Please see Credit Control’s Student Fees – When to pay fees webpage for further information.

What funding is available and when do I need to consider funding?

All our funding opportunities can be found on our King’s Funding Database. You would need to consider funding as soon as possible as deadlines are usually early in the year around February time.

I think my fee status is incorrect. How do I change this?

When you submit your application, King's Apply will use the details you provided at the point of applying (e.g. nationality, country of residence, length of time in the UK etc.) to give you a provisional fee status. This will be reviewed during the assessment process.

If you receive an offer, you will see the fee status within your offer letter. You can contact us via message if you think it is incorrect at this stage. Please review the categories for home fee status on the website of UK Council of International Student Affairs.

If we are unsure of your fee status, you may be asked to complete a detailed Fee Status Questionnaire or provide documentation to give further details of your circumstances in order for us to make a full assessment.

How do I get my CAS number for my student visa?

Make sure that you have told the Admissions Office that you will need a visa by ticking the box on the application form titled “International student: Will you require a visa to study in the UK?”. Please make sure that you have recorded the necessary details from your passport.

We will only start the CAS number process for an offer holder whose offer is unconditional and has been firmly accepted.