Application fee waiver
UCAS is removing the application fee for students in receipt of free school meals, making it easier for young people experiencing acute financial hardship to access higher education. For those applying for 2025 entry and beyond, teachers and advisers will verify eligible students through the adviser portal, and these students will then no longer be required to pay the fee on completion of their UCAS application. Find out more.
If a student is eligible for free school meals but doesn’t actually receive them, what should they tick?
If a student is (or has been) eligible for free school meals, they should tick ‘yes’ whether they received them or not.
Does this information get used for contextual offers?
This varies between individual universities and colleges, as they each have their own policies and practices regarding contextualised offers. Some will take the information about a student’s circumstances into consideration when making an offer, and others will purely use this information to connect students to the right support for their needs.
Not every university or college will offer support at the same level (or at all) so we strongly advise that students do their research before applying, and contact the provider directly to find out how they may be able to support them.
Find out more on our contextual admissions page and in the student FAQs – these are also linked from the help text in their applications.