UCAS extenuating circumstances

[ForMyUseOnly]

Following a couple of uni open days, DD has been advised to ensure she completes the extenuating circumstances part of the ucas form.

As this seems to be quite a new section of the form, we can’t find much guidance on completing it. One uni said that if DD didn’t feel comfortable sharing personal information with her academic referee then an outside agency could complete it. DD prefers to go down this route, and we have a vague idea of what is needed, but not how to submit it.

if anyone knows the answer to the following, we would really appreciate it! Does the external agency write something, give it to DD who then uploads it on to the ucas form, or do they need to input it directly on to the form and bypass DD?

many thanks

She needs to talk to whoever will be writing her reference in her school or college. Although the referee cannot put anything on the form without the applicant's permission, it's not true to say either that the applicant can dictate what does and does not go into the extenuating circumstances box of the UCAS reference. The bar is set at, "significant impact on their attendance and/ or academic progress or achievement".
I've no idea how an external agency would be involved, other than for money.

An external referee would have no idea about the specifics of the impact.

They aren’t charging for it, they are an organisation that DD has been involved with for support for the past couple of years. They are aware of how her education has been impacted, which is why the advisor at the uni open day suggested them.

I'd suggest, then, that she talks to whoever her referee is at school/ college (usually a tutor, or possibly head of year) and to the organisation and ask the latter to send their points/ assessment to the referee. Schools/ colleges won't be able to give direct access to her reference form to external organisations - for very good reasons!

Thanks @Lemonsole thats pretty much what I’ve said to DD so it’s good to have confirmation.

Hi, OP -

As a former admissions tutor I agree with @Lemonsole . The extenuating circumstances box is in the Referee section and needs to be in the Referee’s voice; otherwise admissions tutors would be wary.

It is fine for DD to make a brief reference to her issues, especially if she can point to how she is overcoming them or will deal with them at university, but she cannot use too much of her precious word count on this.
She can also skip it if she is confident her referee won’t forget.

Presumably DD is simply reticent about discussing her circumstances directly with her Referee and finds it easier to let the organisation do this? That’s fine. She may need to give written permission for the arrangement. I would hope that the organisation’s involvement need not appear in the UCAS application as it is best if DD’s application looks just like all the others.