Extenuating circumstances

We are able to consider any circumstances deemed of a serious nature which may affect learning and/or examination performance. Examples include, but are not limited to:

• death of a close family member, such as a parent, child, sibling or partner; 
• a serious, acute or chronic illness/medical condition, including mental health; 
• significant adverse personal/family circumstances; 
• victim of (or witness to) a serious crime or domestic violence; 
• significant disruption to the provision of education at school or college; 
• significant and ongoing caring responsibilities; 
• late diagnosis of a learning disability where reasonable adjustments have not been made – to be accompanied by a supporting statement from the school that demonstrates the impact on studies and/or mental health, rather than just confirmation of diagnosis. 

• Contextual factors already taken into account by our contextual admissions policy.
• Submissions relating solely to your reason for resitting, where there is no evidence that your circumstances will affect your resits. 
• Learning disabilities for which reasonable adjustments have already been made.
• Minor illnesses or injuries during studies or exams.
• Submissions relating to interview performance.
• Disruption caused by COVID-19, unless it has been significant and personal to the individual applicant in line with the 'Circumstances we can consider' list above.
• Disabilities declared on the UCAS application – this will only be considered if you complete an extenuating circumstances submission in line with the examples above and the process outlined in the Guidance for Applicants section below.
• Where you are unable to meet certain academic/selection criteria – for example: 
  • where you are not taking a required subject or an acceptable qualification; 
  • where you do not meet one of the specific eligibility criteria for our Gateway to Medicine/Dentistry/Veterinary Science courses; 
  • where a course has a required GCSE/Level 2 profile and/or a required subject at A-level (Level 3) that cannot be met*; 
  • A-level/Level 3 qualifications already achieved below the required grades – if you have already achieved your qualifications and have missed our entry requirements we would usually expect you to resit;  
  • if you are unable to meet the English Language requirement for your course (for non-English speaking applicants) – all English Language requirements must be met, regardless of your circumstances.

*For some courses we may consider lower grades in GCSE profiles or required A-level subjects, but this varies depending on the course applied for. If we are unable to consider lower grades in a GCSE/Level 2 profile or a required subject, in any circumstances, it will be stated in section 2.6 of the course admissions statement. 

Some of our courses require an additional or external test, which is used as part of our selection process. There are currently four types of additional/external tests – Supplementary Assessment Questionnaires (SAQ), UCAT, LNAT, and Maths admissions tests.

Further details about these tests can be found in the individual course admissions statement.

Only in very exceptional cases will we consider extenuating circumstances when assessing additional/external tests, and only where it is found that the circumstances have directly affected your ability to complete the test.

Supplementary Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ)

The Supplementary Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) is a University of Bristol additional assessment method for courses such as Veterinary Science.

In very exceptional cases, we may be able to consider extenuating circumstances, only where it is found that the circumstances have directly affected your ability to complete the SAQ or have directly affected your ability to meet the deadline.

If you feel that you are unable to meet the SAQ deadline due to circumstances beyond your control, please email us at admissions-ugec@bristol.ac.uk with full details. If you have an exceptional reason for not completing the SAQ to the best of your ability (for example, sudden bereavement or severe illness), please submit an extenuating circumstances form before the SAQ final deadline.

Additional tests – for example, UCAT, LNAT, Maths admissions test

We do not alter the results, in relation to reported extenuating circumstances, of any additional test that forms part of the selection process.

If you have any extenuating circumstances that may affect your performance in an external test, such as LNAT or UCAT, please inform the relevant test centre if you need to reschedule a test for any reason (for example, illness). Where you have been granted an authorised resit owing to your extenuating circumstances, we will accept these test results. Any leniencies or mitigations afforded to you in light of your extenuating circumstances are granted by the external test provider, and we will make no further adjustments.  

In very exceptional cases (such as sudden bereavement of a close relative or very serious illness over the testing period), we may consider extenuating circumstances for these additional tests, only where it is found that the circumstances have directly affected your ability to take the test and only if you are unable to resit. In such cases, please provide evidence of not being able to resit the test, alongside all other required extenuating circumstances documents.

To assess your submission we need to know:

• what happened,
• when it happened and whether it is ongoing,
• how it affected you,
• how it affected your education and/or exams. 

We are unable to assess a submission without the following documents:

1. A completed University of Bristol Extenuating Circumstances form:

You can download either a PDF or Word document version of the form below:

Extenuating circumstances form (PDF, 290kB)

Extenuating circumstances form (Office document, 71kB)

Please ensure you complete all sections. The applicant must write the applicant statement. 

2. Third-party supporting evidence (this can be submitted as a separate document or included in the form) but it must:

• be from an appropriate, independent third party/authority such as: 

• • a detailed statement provided by your school/tutor. 
  • a letter or report from a medical or health professional, including support workers, counselling services and social workers  
  • a solicitor, court or tribunal office letter/statement  
  • a police or fire officer report.

We are unable to consider supporting evidence from a family member or friend.

• be a letter-headed document which has been signed and dated by the appropriate third party.  
• demonstrate impact on academic performance for the period of education/exams and/or potential impact on future exams.
• cover the full period for which the applicant is submitting extenuating circumstances.
• be provided in English or accompanied by a translation formally notarised by a solicitor. 

If your supporting evidence does not contain this information, we may not be able to assess your submission and/or may request evidence from an alternative source.

We do not consider any extenuating circumstances only included in the UCAS application, either in the personal statement or academic reference. However, where appropriate, we may refer to this information when assessing a submission.

Following submission of a UCAS application

For your extenuating circumstances to be considered at the application review stage (the stage when we are deciding whether we can make you an offer/invite you to an interview), your submission must be made within two weeks of your application.

We make offers based on predicted and/or achieved grades so anything that has affected the qualifications you have declared in your application must be submitted within two weeks.

Contact us immediately at admissions-ugec@bristol.ac.uk if there will be a delay in submitting your extenuating circumstances.

During the application process – before we have made a final decision

If your application is placed on hold and your submission is received after the two week deadline there is no guarantee that we will be able to consider your submission unless: 

• there are valid reasons why your submission was received after the two week deadline or;
• you have contacted us about a delay and we have granted an extension.

After we have made an offer

If you want to inform us of any extenuating circumstances that affected your revision period and/or final exams:

• The latest date we can accept any submission is 1 July 2026. 
• If you are due to receive your results before this date, you must submit your documents at least two weeks before your results are published. 
• We are unable to consider any extenuating circumstances submitted after the publication of your examination results.

Once you have received an offer from us we are only able to consider circumstances that may have an effect on your upcoming or recent exams. Please ensure that your applicant statement and third-party evidence are clear about what potential impact your circumstances may have over the revision and/or exam period. 

If you have already submitted an extenuating circumstances form at the application stage, you do not need to send us your form again after a receiving an offer, unless you need to inform us of any changes/developments to your circumstances that will have an impact on your upcoming exams. If you do need to inform us of anything else, please upload further supporting evidence to your Bristol applicant dashboard which must detail which examinations are likely to be affected. 

The information you provide on the form is confidential and is assessed by a panel of admissions staff. We use the information you provide to help us assess your academic performance in light of your extenuating circumstances. 

If either your predicted or achieved grades are lower than our typical offer for the course(s) you are applying for we will decide whether we are still able to consider your application. 

Your forms and evidence will be attached to your application which will be ‘flagged’ to ensure that we consider the information during the decision-making process. We will only use the details of your circumstances to help us to put your academic achievements into context, you will not be disadvantaged by any information you disclose during this process. 

Please note that any information submitted via these forms will be used solely for the purpose of considering your application and will not be passed to any of our wellbeing teams. If you wish to make any of our wellbeing teams aware of your circumstances, please contact them directly. 

We are only able to assess submissions received during the year in which you apply. If you submitted extenuating circumstances for an application in a previous UCAS cycle, you will need to submit a new and updated form and third-party evidence for your new application.

You will receive a confirmation email once your extenuating circumstances have been assessed. This will tell you either:

• if your submission has been accepted, whether we are considering your circumstances at application review stage and/or at the point of reviewing your final results or; 
• why we are unable to consider your submission – please refer to the ‘Circumstances we can consider’ and ‘Circumstances we can’t consider’ sections at the top of the page.

We do not make contextual or other lower offers in light of extenuating circumstances. If an offer is made, it will be at the standard level (or contextual level if you are already eligible).

If we accept your submission at application review stage:

If evidence suggests that your overall academic profile has been affected by your circumstances (achieved or predicted grades), we may decide to make adjustments to your application to improve your overall application score. For example:

• An applicant predicted ABB whose circumstances directly affected their predicted grades may be scored at AAA and/or; 
• An applicant whose circumstances directly affected their GCSE results may have their overall GCSE score adjusted.

Please note, we are unable to adjust the scores of any additional/external tests (for example, UCAT/LNAT/SAQ/Maths tests).

Once any application adjustments have been made, your application will be considered, with the adjusted score, alongside all other applications and there is no guarantee that we will be able to make you an offer.

If we accept your submission for consideration against your final results:

If you narrowly miss the terms of an offer, where evidence suggests that ongoing or new circumstances have affected the revision period and/or exam performance, we will consider the information you have provided alongside your final results.

We will look at the whole picture - your submission, the grades you have achieved and whether those grades will enable you to succeed on the course, as well as whether the University has places available.

The submission of extenuating circumstances does not guarantee that we will be able to accept you if you do not meet your offer conditions in full.