Can UCL hold an offer after A-level withdrawal due to health?

[BeFairDreamer]

My DD was due to sit her A-levels this year and has a firm offer from UCL. Unfortunately, due to significant ongoing health problems that began last year and have continued throughout this academic year, she has been unable to sit her exams and has had to withdraw.
The plan is for her to focus on her health and, hopefully, sit her A-levels next year if she is well enough. She is absolutely devastated at the thought of losing her UCL offer, as it is her first-choice university and she has worked very hard to get there.
I was wondering whether anyone has experience of a similar situation. Is it possible for universities, particularly UCL, to hold an offer for a year in circumstances involving serious health issues, provided the exams are completed the following year? Has anyone successfully had an offer deferred or otherwise accommodated in these circumstances?
If she does end up having to reapply next year, would she be at a disadvantage compared with first-time applicants? Given that she originally received an offer, what are the chances of receiving another offer when reapplying, assuming she achieves the required grades?
Any advice or experiences would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

She can ring them and ask them to defer her offer for a year. They may or may not do so.

I would contact UCL admissions today, in writing, and ask whether they can defer or hold the offer on medical grounds. Include the UCAS ID, course, current offer, what has happened, medical evidence, and the planned exam sitting date. Also ask the school to support the request. If UCL says no, get the reason in writing before planning a reapplication.

This is a big ask, OP.

I agree with @TravisWritingCoach (email), and the request really should come at least formally from DD. Although it is still far from a sure thing, it will help a lot to have the support of the school.

Are they filing for Mitigating Circumstances with the exam boards? That would also help. Again, no guarantees.

PS If DD needs to reapply and if she is well when she does so, I do not think she will be at a disadvantage. I think she will want a referee to address her health. If she spends her gap year partially on enhancing her preparation for university (for real!) that can also help.

I write that as a former admissions tutor at a highly ranked school.

The only people that can answer this are admissions. They deal with this kind of thing all the time- people defer, have health issues, or other reasons that mean they need to delay, and there will be established and clear protocols.

Just because the uni is prestigious doesn't mean they don't want to help, so please don't be put off calling them ASAP for a chat, and following up with an email.

This is generally true, @Posywosey . However a couple of things are going on.

I strongly believe this is a follow up post, and the DD has MH problems. That in itself is rightly no big deal to a university. But a parent ringing is a flag unless the candidate is in a coma or something. Ideally the DD would be able to ring, but based on the previous post I am not confident it would go well. Also, it is much easier for academics to respond to email, and DD will need a written record of any positive response.

Unis do want do help candidates facing setbacks of all kinds. However I believe DD’s best chance is to present herself with composure and take this forward herself. Obviously OP can help her to craft an email.

Again, OP (following from previous thread) very best wishes to DD.

@poetryandwine ah! I didn't realise that it was a follow up, or the nature of the issues.

You're definitely right that it should be on the daughter to discuss with the university directly, as an adult.

Your daughter needs to contact them and ask, they are under no obligation to, and top unis often want students to show they can cope with large workloads so would expect more than just 1 A’Level I know one who had an offer for Imperial who had to do 3 A’Levels the next year to keep their offer, luckily she did that and got in. Good luck.

OP I deal with this sort of thing in my job.

Your daughter and the school can get in touch with UCL to ask. Sadly, UCL are incredibly inflexible. Bushes can reapply next year

She has emailed today to ask . Hopefully they agree and are understanding but if not she will have to reapply . With reapplying do you think she’d be disadvantaged having taken an extra year to do her A levels and therefore be less likely to recieve another offer? Thank you

Hard to say without knowing more details. They have had a massive increase in applications.
Does she need an admissions test for her course? If so she is likely to need to resit that and she should prioritise doing well on that. Strong GCSE’s will work in her favour

There wasn’t any admissions test and I think she will be reapply for the same course if needed. She got eight grade 9s and one 7 at gcse so I think that did help to get an offer but there is definitely a lot of competition too .

Well done to your girl☺️
All she can do is try. I suspect they will say that she will have to reapply and compete with everyone else.
Can you take her to some open days at more universities so she can have one or two really solid back ups that she is excited about?

Thank you! Yes she can go to open days however she wants to go somewhere close to home (in London) but also ‘prestigious’ and well ranked . UCL was her top choice also looked at Bristol which she liked but I don’t think she’d manage being away from home . She liked KCL too and got an offer so could reapply there. I know how much she wants to go to UCl and she knows someone there doing the same course she wants to do . She also finds it very difficult to make friends