After you apply
Acknowledging your application
After we receive your application, we'll create an applicant record for you. When this is ready we'll send you an email containing your applicant and choice numbers. You should normally receive this email within two working days. We'll then send your application for academic consideration.
You can check the progress of your application at any time simply by logging back into your online application.
Email contact
If we need to contact you we'll do so by email, so please make sure that you check the email account you used for your application, and that this account is set to trust messages coming from @shef.ac.uk and @sheffield.ac.uk addresses. You may wish to add study@sheffield.ac.uk to your address book to avoid important messages being marked as spam.
If you change your email address, please let us know by emailing us at study@sheffield.ac.uk, including your full name and applicant number.
Waiting for a decision
For most taught courses, it normally takes academic departments around four weeks to make decisions on applications. It can take longer at busy times.
For some of our courses, we may invite you to attend an interview with staff from your academic department. You can find information on what to expect in an interview in our guidance:
When we've made our decision
When we've made our decision, it will appear in your online application, and we'll also send you an email to confirm this.
If we've offered you a study place, we'll provide you with an official electronic offer letter detailing any conditions and the amount payable for the tuition fees. The offer letter will be attached to our email and also available for you to download from your online application.
If we haven't offered you a study place and you would like feedback on this decision, you should contact the academic department directly in writing. You can find their contact details under the relevant entry in our postgraduate taught course listings.
Offer types
If we make you an offer, it will be either Conditional or Unconditional.
A Conditional offer means that there are requirements that you need to meet before you can start the course, for example a certain English language score, or a minimum grade in your current studies.
An Unconditional offer means that there are no further academic requirements that you need to meet.
Conditional offers
If we've made you a Conditional offer, the conditions will be stated in your offer letter. When you've met these conditions, you should upload to your online application documents that prove it. When you've met all the conditions of your offer, we'll provide you with a new, Unconditional offer letter.
The standard deadlines for meeting the conditions of your offer are provided on our key dates and deadlines page. A few courses use different deadlines. If this is the case for your course, it will be indicated in your offer letter.
If you have any problems attaching documents to your online application, please contact us.
Calculating average final marks for International students
We normally determine the final mark of an international degree by calculating the average of all the module marks, weighted by credit value. For module marks assigned as a range, we use the mid-point of the range. Note that the average we calculate may differ from the average shown on your transcript.
Unconditional offers
An Unconditional offer has no conditions. You just need to let us know whether or not you want to accept or decline our offer of a study place.
Replying to your offer
In most cases, you can accept or decline the offer of a study place via your online application. If you're not able to do this, please let us know your decision by emailing us at study@sheffield.ac.uk. When you accept an offer, you also accept our Terms and Conditions upon Acceptance of an Offer.
Except where indicated in the offer letter, there are no specific deadlines for accepting an offer. However, we encourage applicants to make a decision within three months of receiving an offer. Also, the sooner you accept an offer, the sooner you'll be able to make other arrangements (for example your accommodation or visa).
You can accept only one Unconditional offer of a place. If you've received Unconditional offers for more than one course, you'll need to choose which course to accept. You should then decline the other offers.
Tuition fee deposits for International applicants
If you're an International applicant, we'll normally ask you to pay a deposit on your tuition fee after you accept an Unconditional offer. We'll tell you more about this, including how you can pay, in your Unconditional offer letter.
Withdrawing your application
If you want to withdraw from the application process, please contact us. We'll then update your application record.
Deferrals
If we've offered you a study place and you will be unable to attend at the start of your course, you may be able to defer your entry to the next admission point. Most postgraduate taught courses have one admission per year, at the start of the autumn semester in September/October.
For most courses, you can request a deferral through your original online application by clicking on the 'Request Deferral' link in the 'Your Applications' section. Requesting a deferral will deactivate your current offer, so you should only request one when you're sure that you can't start on the original start date. If you aren't sure, we would advise you to submit a new application for the next admission point, when applications open for that year.
If the academic selectors approve your request, we'll send you an amended offer letter with a deferred start date.
You should submit your deferral request by the deadline published on our key dates webpage. You can defer your application a maximum of two times. If want to defer for a third time, we'll ask you to re-apply.
Deferral requests are reviewed by our admissions selectors, then we'll let you know the decision. Please note that we can't always review deferral requests when we receive them, and we can't issue deferred offers until after the new admissions year has begun, usually in September. We'll acknowledge receipt of your request within two weeks.
Further information sent by the University
- Your MUSE account
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University of Sheffield offer-holders are entitled to access the members area of our website, MUSE (My University of Sheffield Environment). Using MUSE is the easiest way to book to attend departmental open days, apply for University accommodation and scholarships and, when the time comes, complete pre-registration tasks.
After we've issued your offer, we'll email you with a username and invite you to activate your account. More information is available on our webpages:
- Accommodation
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When you have accepted your Conditional or Unconditional offer, you can apply online for University accommodation. You can find more information, and view the full range of accommodation available for postgraduates, on our webpages:
- Visas
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If you'll need a visa to study in the UK, you can find more information about when and how we'll arrange your CAS on our CAS Application webpages:
This page also includes links to further information about the visa application process.
- ATAS
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If your offer letter says you'll require ATAS clearance to study on your course, you can find more information on our ATAS webpages:
- Induction and Registration
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If you've accepted your Unconditional offer, we'll email you with pre-registration information about four weeks before the start date of your course. You can also access pre-registration tasks via your MUSE account.
If you have not received your pre-registration email by three weeks before your course starts, please contact preregistration@sheffield.ac.uk.
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Postgraduate online open day
Become part of our community of talented postgraduate students. Join us at our online open day on Wednesday 27 November 2024.