What to do if you miss the UCAS deadline

CONTENTS

1. UCAS deadline 2026

2. UCAS late application

3. Do UK universities accept late admissions?

4. What if you missed the UCAS January deadline?

5. What if you miss the 30 June university deadline?

UCAS deadline 2026

For 2026 entry, the date to apply for most undergraduate courses is 14 January 2026. This is earlier than in recent years, meaning more applicants may apply after the UCAS deadline.

If you're applying to Oxbridge (Oxford or Cambridge), or for a medicine, dentistry, or veterinary degree, then your application must be in much earlier – by 15 October 2025.

Find out more about the dates for applying to university.

UCAS late application

If you miss the university deadline, you can still apply to most undergraduate courses. Don’t worry if you make a late UCAS application — lots of students apply late and still receive offers.

For example, in 2024:

• Before the January deadline, more than 510,000 undergraduate applications were submitted. Of those, 66% got a place at university.
• After the January deadline but before 30 June, nearly 62,000 students applied. Of those, 51% secured their place at uni.

After 14 January, popular degrees may not have spaces left, but most courses will still accept a late submission.

But if you want to apply to Oxford, Cambridge, or any of the courses you must apply to by 15 October, you’re unlikely to get a place. This is because these universities and courses are highly competitive, and places will be filled quickly.

Do UK universities accept late admissions?

In short, yes, they do. Universities do not have to wait until the January cut-off date to make offers, but they must consider all applications received before this date equally. Many students get offers well before January, some as early as October.

After the January deadline, unis are no longer required to treat each application the same. Applications received after this date will be treated on a first come, first served basis, so don't leave it too late. Some courses (particularly those with caps on numbers), such as Midwifery and Primary Teaching, may fill up quickly. Contact the uni and check their available courses before you apply.

To help quickly find the best university for you, use our Uniselect tool to find unis offering your subject by location, within your accommodation budget, and more.

What if you missed the UCAS January deadline?

If you’re applying after 14 January, the UCAS late application process is the same as before that date. In fact, you can still use the normal application system until 30 June.

You can make up to five university choices; you don’t have to add all five at once, but remember, places on courses may already be filling up.

UCAS Extra

If you do apply using all five choices, but don’t get any offers (or decline offers), you can use Extra to add more choices. This is a free service that lets you add one choice at a time. You can only use Extra if you are not holding any offers from a university. So, if you receive an offer, you must decline it to use Extra.

• You can apply to a course at a university but must wait to hear back from that uni.
• If you receive an offer and accept it, you have got a place!
• If you don’t receive an offer, or change your mind and decline an offer, you can use Extra again.

In 2026, UCAS Extra will open on 26 February and run until 1 July.

Read our article about replying to university offers to find out about university deadlines for accepting offers.

What if you miss the 30 June university deadline?

You can still apply to uni after 6pm on 30^th June, but after this date your application will automatically enter you into Clearing. Don't panic; this is a great way to find a course that you may not have considered before. 60,000 students find their uni place via Clearing every year.

You can read our guide to Clearing to find out more about how it works, or read Clearing success stories to hear about students’ experiences of Clearing. And during Clearing, our course search will show you which courses still have places. Bear in mind that the courses available will reduce as they fill these places.

In 2026, UCAS Clearing is open from 2 July to 19 October.

If you don't want to go through Clearing this year, then you can wait and apply next year instead. You will have taken your exams and can apply next year with your confirmed grades. This may make it less stressful as you will know your grades and can apply for courses that you are confident you can get onto.