Alternative offers

We have a range of schemes which you may be eligible for, depending on your circumstances and experiences. If you are eligible, you will typically receive either a reduced offer or additional consideration, depending on the course you have applied to study. This will be applied automatically based on the information you provide when you apply. These schemes apply to all of our Undergraduate courses at Keele with the exception of D100 Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, and Keele’s Foundation Year courses. These schemes are open to A level (including the Welsh Baccalaureate), BTEC, International Baccalaureate, Advanced Higher, or Access to HE Diploma students only, as outlined under each scheme.

1. Contextual Offers 

We recognise that our applicants have different backgrounds and experiences and that some applicants may not have had the same opportunities as others. We are committed to ensuring that applicants are not disadvantaged because of their personal circumstances and have a strong record in admitting students to Keele with a wide range of educational experiences.

To receive a contextual offer applicants must meet ONE of the following indicators:

• Currently at a state school, academy or college and living in an area with low participation in higher education (defined as POLAR4 quintiles 1 and 2)
• Currently at a state school, academy or college and living in an area of relative deprivation (defined as IMD quintiles 1 and 2)
• Care leavers who have spent any length of time in local authority care, either with foster carers or in a children’s home (or in Scotland under a home supervision order)
• Refugees, Asylum Seekers or those under Humanitarian Protection.
• Receive (or have received) Free School Meals
• You are a young carer
• First in the family to enter Higher Education (First in family to enter higher education, as defined by UCAS. Applicant must indicate on UCAS application form. Parental higher education includes those who have gained a degree or equivalent overseas, or have qualified in a profession within a workplace setting (e.g. doctor, pharmacist or other registered healthcare professional; solicitor; higher education teacher; chartered-status accountant, engineer, etc.)
• Either parent served in Armed Forces, you served in Armed Forces, or you are a Service Leaver

The following table provides a guide to how our standard offers will be adjusted to become contextual offers. If you are not certain how or whether this would apply to you, please contact Admissions who will be happy to confirm:

Note for A level, IB and Advanced Highers any subject requirements (e.g. B in Physics, 4 in Chemistry etc.) are not reduced. The reduction will apply solely to other elements of the offer e.g. for a typical subject at BBB with B in History and B in Geography a contextual offer would be BBD with B in History and B in Geography, rather than BCC.

2. Additional Qualifications 

Keele understands that applicants will demonstrate their aptitude to study in different ways and will sometimes undertake additional study alongside their primary qualifications. We formally recognise a range of these additional qualifications in your offer:

1. Extended Project Qualification (EPQ)
2. AQA or Cambridge IPQ
3. Cambridge Pre-U Global Perspectives
4. International Baccalaureate Extended Essay (when not taken as part of / alongside the main International Baccalaureate qualification)
5. Core Maths

Applicants undertaking the following qualifications, in years 12 and 13, will receive two offers when they apply to Keele, a standard offer and an alternative offer (or, if they are eligible, a combination of alternative offers). You will only need to meet the requirements of one of these offers to qualify for entry.

The following table is provided as a guide to how our standard offers will be adjusted to account for additional qualifications. If you are not certain how or whether this would apply to you, please contact us and we will be happy to confirm.

3. Keele Region Applicants

Since our foundation in 1949, we’ve been deeply rooted in our region: Stoke-on-Trent and the Potteries, Staffordshire, and the wider countryside between Greater Manchester and the West Midlands conurbation. We are committed to our civic role and want to support applicants who choose to study locally - for whatever reason - and commuter students who have fewer local study options available. On that basis, applicants studying at a School or College in the defined ‘Keele Region’, or independent applicants living in the region, will receive an alternative offer.

The Keele Region includes the following local government areas:

• Cheshire East
• Cheshire West and Chester
• Derby
• Derbyshire
• Shropshire
• Staffordshire
• Stoke-on-Trent
• Telford and Wrekin
• Wrexham

Keele Region Areas

4. Widening Access to Medicine (A100)

We are committed to ensuring that applicants are not disadvantaged because of their personal circumstances and have a strong record in admitting students to Keele with a wide range of educational experiences. For our Medicine (A100) programme, we offer the following schemes:

Education significantly disrupted but are not eligible for an alternative offer?

Special consideration will be given to those applicants whose education has been significantly disrupted or disadvantaged through health, personal problems, disability or other circumstances. Applicants should contact the Associate Director of Admissions and Enquiries in the first instance and will be required to provide documentary evidence.

Medicine Applicants

All requests to consider extenuating circumstances should be sent to medicine@keele.ac.uk at the time of application submission and no later than 31 October 2024 for 2025 entry.