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What You Need To Know About New UCAS Personal Statement Changes In 2025

, by Mikaela Bartlett, min. read

The UCAS personal statement is about to get a refresh.

From the 2026 UCAS admissions cycle, the way you submit your personal statements is changing. It might seem like a long way away, but if you’re applying for uni in 2026, you’ll start thinking about it from this year.

In the past, you would’ve had to fill out one big block for your personal statement. But a 2023 study from UCAS showed that 83% of people filling out a personal statement found the process stressful. So they’ve been working on a new process that offers more structure to help improve accessibility.

But as ever, it can be confusing if you’re not sure what to expect. So we’ve got everything you need to know about all the changes that are happening, and when they’re taking place.

In this article:

Person typing on their laptop

What is the new process?

From autumn 2025, there will be three text boxes with question prompts. These are designed to help students who might otherwise find it difficult to complete a UCAS personal statement without assistance.

The old system featured one freeform text box where you could input your personal statement without any prompts or structure.

What are the three questions?

The three questions you’ll be prompted to fill out from autumn 2025:

  • Why do you want to study this course or subject? This question is your chance to show why you’re passionate about the course or subject you’ve chosen to study. You can draw upon experiences both at school or outside of school, maybe what sparked your first interest.
  • How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject? Use this question as a chance to think critically about what elements of your A-Levels and GCSEs have helped you. For example, if you’re applying for an English degree, you can talk about how learning about a variety of genres in your GCSE English class has built your analytical skills across different types of literature.
  • What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful? If you have a part-time job, or extra-curricular groups or hobbies you do, then you can talk about the different skills you’ve learnt through these. If you don’t have any of these, then draw on some of your personal hobbies, maybe you like reading, or cooking, or drawing. All of these are useful skills even if they’re not structured activities.

These questions have been specifically designed to help structure your answers a lot more easily than the previous format. There’s a word limit of 4000, but you can choose how much you write in each box. You might find writing to answer specific questions instead of having to find out how to structure a full UCAS personal statement easier.

Why is the personal statement changing?

As mentioned, UCAS have always looked into how they can improve the system of applying to university and make sure they’re being as accessible as possible. They identified in their 2023 report that there are “fears that students who do not have access to high quality advice and guidance will not be able to use the statement to shine in the same way that their more advantaged peers can”.

Off the back of this, UCAS worked with students and universities to work out the best way to reduce stress when it comes to personal statements. So this is how they came to restructure the personal statement into three questions.

It can be hard to keep up with all the changes to UCAS, so we’ve got lots of guides to help you start your university journey, including everything you need to know about UCAS tariff points.

When are changes coming into play?

The good news is, you’ve got a little bit of time. The changes to personal statements will be for admissions in 2026, which mean once you’re in year 12 in autumn 2025, you’ll start thinking about applying for uni.

So from September 2025, the new personal statement will be rolled out, with three text boxes and three questions to answer.

When it gets to that stage, it’s always a good idea to start brushing up on your university interview techniques too so you can feel really prepared.

Have teacher references changed?

Yes, teacher references have also changed to reflect the new personal statement changes. This allows for them to give more objective comments about students.

Tips for writing your personal statement

If you’re still not sure, we’ve got some tips to help make writing your personal statement a breeze:

  • Give examples – when talking about your skills and abilities, it’s always a good idea to give examples of where you’ve used these in practice. Whether it’s at school or in your spare time, a practical application of your skills is a great way to boost your personal statement.
  • Keep it concise – if you’re describing when you’ve used a skill, keep it very focused. Don’t feel like you need to just write for the sake of writing. In fact, waffling on can take up a lot of word count that you could use for something else.
  • Ask someone else to read it – after writing a big chunk of text, it’s very easy to feel overwhelmed when it comes to proofreading. Speak to your parents, or even a friend, to just ask them to read through what you’ve written and check it makes sense and for any spelling errors.
  • Keep it positive – this is your time to shine! Try to focus on the positive and not on past mistakes (we all make them!)

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