When creating your application with us, you will need the following documents:
- Photocopy of your passport
- Personal Statement
- Academic certificates (if you have completed your studies)
- Academic transcripts
- Two letters of recommendations
- Other qualifications to support your application
- CV or resume if you have taken a year or more out of education
Personal statement
What is a personal statement?
A personal statement demonstrates why you wish to study with us at St. Mary’s. Your statement is a chance for you to showcase why you should be considered for the course, the experiences you have gained and, skills you have that relates to the course.
What should you write?
Each personal statement is unique to every applicant as you are writing about yourself. This is usually a page long statement where you are telling the admissions team and course academics why you’re suitable for the course. You should not search for an online template for your writing as it is plagiarism and may cause a negative effect on your application.
Here are a few tips to get you started:
- Search for your course on our website, where you will find the course description to identify what we’re looking for. Relate your qualities, skills and experiences to the description.
- We want to hear about your ambitions and why you’re interested in the subject and, why you wish to study at St. Mary’s University.
- What sets you apart? Think about what clubs, societies you belong to that makes you suitable for the course.
- Have you gained any relevant work experiences or additional academics skills through education that makes you suitable for the course?
- If you have taken a year or more out of education provide further information to what you did during this time. Let us know why you chose to take a break, if you gained any additional work experiences or any personal circumstances that might have occurred.
- You may want to include any personal circumstances that might have affected your educational performance or caused an unsuccessful previous study, for example, a medical condition or caring for a family member.
If you are an international student, you may want to include the following additional information:
- Why you do you wish to study in the UK?
- Why do you want to study in the UK as an International student rather than in your own country?
Check our guidance on how to write your personal statement.
Academic certificates and transcripts
When applying with us directly we require academic certificates and transcripts to confirm either your current studies or your completed qualification.
What do we look for?
If you haven’t completed your studies we need official documentation that confirms the qualification that you are studying, name of institute and course duration. This can be a letter of enrolment or official transcripts. In addition, we require transcripts to confirm which modules you’ve already completed.
If you have completed your qualification, we need to see your official completion certificate and official transcripts. Your completion certificate needs to show your course level, institute name, your name, completion date and grade. The transcripts should show your completed modules and grades with dates to confirm your course duration.
For International students, you will need to submit an English translation of your documents if they’re not issued in English. This will need to be done by an official notary.
Letters of recommendations
To support your application, we need two letters of recommendations. These can be done by a past or current tutor or, from a current employer. They cannot be written by a family member or friend. These references make your application stronger and we are expecting to see references that are related to your course of interest.
Other qualifications
If you have gained any qualifications that’s related to your course outside the education system please attach to your application. This will be of interest to the admissions team and academics especially if you are applying as either a mature student or have taken a year or more out of education.
CV
When applying as a mature student or if you’ve taken a year or more out of education we do want to see a CV. Your CV or resume should showcase your work experience, any relevant volunteering work or additional experiences to support your application. You should include the period of time for each work position in your CV.