UCAS has ditched personal statements for uni and replaced them with these three questions

I actually feel sick thinking back to being forced to write a personal statement for uni. Trying to come up any tedious links as to how your year five school play helped you in wanting to study history or how walking your dog gave you a deeper understanding of nature which naturally made you more passionate about geography. Pure trauma.

Well, UCAS has just announced it is completely scrapping personal statements for people applying to uni. It has instead replaced the application with three questions,  instead of a box to write whatever you want. The three questions are:

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

UCAS says this is an applicant’s opportunity to showcase their passion for and knowledge of their chosen subject, to demonstrate to universities why they are a good fit, and to outline any future ambitions.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

Students in this section are supposed to describe relevant or transferable skills they’ve gained in education and demonstrate their understanding of how these will help them succeed in their chosen course or subject area.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences helpful?

Bronze Duke of Edinburgh, obvs. UCAS says this question should be so students can reflect on their personal experiences and any other activities they have undertaken outside their education to further demonstrate their suitability for the course.

Via Canva

The new personal statement format will be introduced in September 2025 for students applying for uni 2026. The character count will stay the same at 4,000 characters.

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The change has been made to “level the playing field” for students applying to uni and data is showing university applications from students from disadvantaged backgrounds have started to fall. The application rate for these students went down by 0.4 per cent in England in the past year. As well as this, UCAS said 79 per cent of students previously surveyed thought writing their personal statement was difficult to do without support.

UCAS surveyed potential applicants about to start their personal statement and found more than three-quarters prefer the new three-question format. Over 80 per cent said they found the three questions “extremely easy” or “somewhat easy” to understand.

Dr Jo Saxton, Chief Executive at UCAS, said: “My aim at UCAS is to make sure that the doors of opportunity stay open for as many students as possible so that they can benefit from a university education, and find the right course that they will succeed in. Today’s figures show that whilst positive progress has been made, there is still much to do. The changes to the personal statement, along with our recent fee waiver for students in receipt of free school meals, are all part of UCAS’ contribution to the sector-wide effort to ensure more people from disadvantaged backgrounds can benefit from the life-changing opportunity of higher education.

“During my time in schools, I saw first-hand how the personal statement can help students really clarify and articulate their ambition, but also how challenging it can be for those with less support. The new approach, with guided questions aims to give greater confidence to those students, as well as their teachers when advising on how to secure their dream course.”

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