Are UCAS scrapping personal statements for 2025?

If you’re considering applying to university in the future, you might have heard that UCAS is getting rid of personal statements. Although this might sound scary, the new application process is designed to make it easier and fairer for everyone applying to university.  

The University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is introducing a different application process, which will affect people applying for university to start in September 2026. If you’ve already applied to university or will be applying to start in September 2025, this is not something you’ll need to worry about!   

In this blog, we’ll cover everything you need to know about what is changing, why personal statements are being scrapped, what these new UCAS questions are, and when they’ll come into effect.  

What is changing? 

Personal statements have been around for quite some time, and they’ve previously been one of the most important parts of the university application process. Your personal statement is an opportunity to tell universities more about yourself and why you want to study a particular course.  

Now, UCAS has decided to get rid of the traditional 4000-character personal statement. Instead, entrants will answer three structured questions. The exact questions are still being finalised, but UCAS is asking for feedback on their suggested questions.  

Why is UCAS scrapping personal statements? 

UCAS and the Department of Education gathered feedback from around 15,000 students and 700 teachers. Their survey found that students had mixed feelings about the personal statement. Although 72% of students felt positive about the personal statement, 83% said the process was stressful, and 79% said the personal statement was difficult to complete without proper support and guidance.  

By changing the character essay into a series of free-text questions, UCAS hopes it will be clearer to all students what information they should include in their application and allow them to present themselves in the best light.  These UCAS application questions are designed to be a more supportive framework that will guide students and remove the guesswork about what they should include.  

The personal statement has been criticised because some believe the format favours privileged students with access to more support, help and guidance. UCAS hopes the changes will make the application process fairer for all students and level the playing field between students who have a lot of support with their application and those who have less. Kim Eccleston, head of strategy and reform at UCAS, thinks the changes will bring “focus and clarity for students, reducing the need for support” with their applications.  

What are the new UCAS personal statement questions? 

When the new application process comes into force, you won’t be required to write a personal statement. You’ll need to write detailed answers to three structured questions instead.  

At the moment, the exact questions that’ll be asked haven’t been finalised. However, the three key themes have been identified, and these are the three UCAS-style questions that have been proposed:   

• Motivation for your course: Why do you want to study these courses?

• Preparedness for your course: How has your learning so far helped you to be ready to succeed in these courses?
• Preparation through other experiences: What else have you done to help you prepare, and why are these experiences useful?

There will also be a question on extenuating circumstances, which will be in a different section of the application: 

• Extenuating circumstances: Is there anything that the universities and colleges need to know about to help them put your achievements and experiences so far into context?

The following two questions were initially proposed but have now been withdrawn by UCAS based on feedback:  

• Preparedness for study: What have you done to prepare yourself for student life?
• Preferred Learning Styles: Which learning and assessment styles best suit you - how do your course choices match that?

UCAS is still collecting feedback from schools, students, colleges and universities to help them decide on the final set of questions and their exact wording, so there will likely be some changes.  

When will these new UCAS questions come into effect? 

These new questions will be introduced in 2025 for those applying to start university in September 2026. If you’re applying in 2024 to start in September 2025, you’ll be using the old format and will still need to write a personal statement.  

All-inclusive student properties  

If you’re thinking about applying to university in the future, looking for student accommodation might feel like it’s years away. However, once you’re at uni, there’s only a couple of months, and then it’s time to start looking for second-year accommodation.  

When the time comes, why not make your search as simple as possible and find all-inclusive student accommodation with UniHomes? 

At UniHomes, we have an extensive landlord and letting agent network with all-inclusive student houses in cities across the UK. So, wherever you plan to go to uni, it’s easy to find the perfect accommodation with our simple-to-use search tool!  

All the properties on our site come with uncapped water and energy bills and high-speed broadband, so you won’t have to worry about setting up utility accounts and splitting your household bills with your housemates. 

Contact us today to learn more about how all-inclusive properties work, or look at the properties for rent to see what’s available in your future student city.