At King’s we don’t just use your grades to assess your application. We recognise that not everyone has the same educational journey and that some students have overcome significant challenges to achieve their grades.

If you have experienced certain barriers which make it harder for you to achieve a course’s standard entry requirements, we will take this into consideration.

We use the information you provide on your UCAS application to determine if you are eligible for a contextual offer. This means the process is mostly automatic, and you may not need to do anything extra.

If you are care experienced it’s important that you tick the care experienced box as part of your UCAS application. You can find the care experience question in the ‘Diversity and inclusion’ section of your UCAS hub. If you are estranged from your family, have a history of forced migration, have unpaid caring responsibilities, or have been in receipt of Free School Meals (FMS)¹ you can let us know by selecting the relevant status in the ‘More about you’ section of your UCAS hub.

Once your UCAS application has been submitted, you will receive a message asking you to submit supporting evidence via the King’s Apply portal. If you would like to get ahead and learn more about eligibility and the documents you’ll need, please click on the links above.

Please note that contextual admissions are only available to UK based students applying for an undergraduate degree.

Contextual offers are made to applicants who may have experienced barriers that have impeded their academic progress².

• Contextual offers may be up to two A-Level grades³ (or equivalent) lower than the advertised entry requirements found on the course pages.
• Students whose application is considered as being close to the standard required to gain an interview may be offered an interview.
• Students whose admissions test score is considered as being close to the required standard may be given an offer or interview.
• Students who narrowly fail to meet their conditional offer will be given additional consideration as to whether their place should be confirmed.

Please note that an offer is not guaranteed.  

Applicants must meet at least one of the criteria outlined below to be considered for a contextual offer.

Have successfully completed King’s College London’s Social Mobility and Widening Participation programme K+

AND/OR

Have been in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM)

AND/OR

Have the following experience:

Care-Experienced/Care Leaver or Estranged

Additional consideration is given to applications from students who may have experienced barriers that have impeded their academic progress. The outcome of this process may be:

• Students whose application is considered to be close to the standard required to gain an interview may be offered an interview.
• Students whose admissions test score is considered to be close to the required standard may be given an offer or interview.
• Students may receive an offer for a place on the programme applied for, or an offer of a place on an alternative programme.
• Students who narrowly fail to meet their conditional offer will be given additional consideration as to whether their place should be confirmed.

Please note that an offer is not guaranteed

Applicants must meet at least one of the criteria below for their application to be given additional consideration:

Have successfully completed a qualifying King’s College London Widening Participation programme

AND/OR

Have attended the following school:

King’s College London Maths School

AND/OR

Have taken part in a qualifying course delivered by the following organisation:

IntoUniversity

AND/OR

Have the following experience:

Forced displacement (sometimes referred to as forced migration)

Young Adult Carer

The information displayed on this page applies to those applying for September 2026 entry.

Some of our undergraduate courses have GCSE requirements, which can be found on the course webpage. To be eligible for a course, you must still meet these GCSE requirements.

Some of our undergraduate courses also have A-level (or equivalent) subject requirements. To be eligible for a programme, applicants must meet these subject requirements at the level specified on the course webpage.

¹ Free School Meals data is provided by UCAS and verified by the Department for Education. However, we encourage applicants to self-declare they have been in receipt of Free School Meals on their UCAS application. We do not primarily use this unverified information, but it may be considered if necessary.

² Students applying for our MBBS courses or courses in the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences are not eligible for contextual offers. If eligible, students may choose to apply for the Extended Medical Degree Programme (EMDP) and Enhanced Support Dentistry Programme (ESDP). Students applying to the course English Law & Hong Kong Law LLB and JD are not eligible for this reduction.

³ Contextual entry requirements may be up to two grades below the standard entry requirements. There are some eligible courses and/or qualifications where the contextual entry requirements are not two grades below the standard requirements. Full details of the contextual entry requirements for each course can be found on the course webpages. For courses that require admission tests, applicants must meet the threshold to progress with their application.