What is Contextual Admissions?

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 had to overcome 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.

How does it work?

We use the information you provide on your UCAS application. This means that it is mostly automatic, and you usually do not have to do anything.

If you are care experienced, it’s important that you answer that question on your UCAS application. (Our admissions team might get in touch with you to ask for a bit more information about your care experience: don’t worry it is just to get basic information from you.)

If you are a forced migrant, we will get that information from your UCAS application and/or your assigned fee status.

We will automatically get the other factors (postcode and school information) from your application.

Contextual offers are made to those applicants who may have experienced barriers that have impeded their academic progress*. Contextual offers may be up to two A-Level grades** (or equivalent) lower than the advertised entry requirements found on the course pages.

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

Have successfully completed one of King’s College London’s widening participation programmes:

• Discover Chemistry Summer School
• KCL Sutton Trust Summer School
• KPlus
• Realising Opportunities

AND/OR

Live in one of the following postcodes:

• ACORN: the applicant lives in an area which has a higher classification (categories 4 or 5)
• IMD: the applicant lives in an area which has a higher level of deprivation (deciles 1 or 2 or quintile 1)
• POLAR 4: the applicant lives in an area where the proportion of young people progressing to higher education is low (quintile 1 or 2)

AND/OR

Have the following experience:

• Care-Experienced

*Students applying for our MBBS courses or our courses in the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences are not eligible for this reduction. With the exception, if eligible, students may choose to apply for the long-established Extended Medical Degree Programme (EMDP) and Enhanced Support Dentistry Programme (ESDP).

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 an offer of a place on the programme applied for or an offer of a place on an alternative programme; however, an offer cannot be guaranteed.

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

Have successfully completed one of King’s College London’s widening participation programmes:

• Aspire
• DentView
• MedView

AND/OR

Have attended the following school:

• King’s College London Maths School

AND/OR

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

• IntoUniversity

AND/OR

Have the following experience:

• Estranged
• Forced Migrant

The information displayed on this page applies to the 2021-22 UCAS Cycle.

Some of our undergraduate programmes have GCSE requirements, which can be found on the Online Prospectus. To be eligible for a programme, these GCSE requirements must still be met.

Some of our undergraduate programmes also have A-level (or equivalent) subject requirements. To be eligible for a programme, applicants must be able to meet these subject requirements at the level specified on the online prospectus.

**Contextual entry requirements may be up to two grades below the standard entry requirements There are some eligible programmes 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 programme can be found on the Online Prospectus.

Students applying for our MBBS courses or our courses in the Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences are not eligible for this reduction. With the exception, if eligible, students may choose to apply for the long-established Extended Medical Degree Programme (EMDP) and Enhanced Support Dentistry Programme (ESDP).