In order to be eligible for this criteria, your parent(s)/guardian(s) must not have attended university or attained a higher education qualification, unless as a mature student over the age of 25. If your parent(s)/guardian(s) graduated as a doctor or dentist at any age, then you would not be eligible for this criteria. This is applicable for qualifications achieved both in the UK and abroad.

Please ensure that you have read our First in Family Guidance thoroughly and carefully. Once you have done so, please complete our First in Family form linked here. We will receive your response automatically and so there is no need to email us to confirm your completion.

If you have been instructed on the form to send us supporting documents, please send these as soon as possible to ugamedicine@lancaster.ac.uk.

Our Low Income criteria can be evidenced in three ways. In order to be eligible for this criteria, you only need to provide evidence of one of the below. There is no additional advantage given to those who can evidence this criteria in more than one form.

If you would like to provide us with multiple forms of evidence, then you may do so. However, we would recommend prioritising the easiest one for you to obtain.

Please do not provide a bank statement, P60, or evidence of household income in support of any of our Low Income criteria.

Government means-tested benefits:

Accepted benefits include (subject to review by Admissions team): Universal Credit statements, Employment and Support Allowance, Disability Living Allowance/Personal Independence Payment, Child Tax Credit.

Please provide a statement/letter from HMRC, or a Universal Credit statement, dated no earlier than 1st January 2025. For applicants who have completed A Level (or equivalent) studies, this must be dated during your final year of sixth form/college.

The statement must clearly demonstrate the following:

• Name of recipient, with confirmation in your email of their relationship to you
• Home address of the recipient
• Date of issue/payment
• Details and confirmation of the benefit your household is entitled to

Free School Meals:

In order to be eligible for this criteria, you must be or have been in receipt of or eligible for government funded Free School Meals during your 11-16 secondary education.

Please note that we are unable to accept receipt of free school meals where this is not government funded (e.g. this is funded by your school).

Please ask somebody at your school or college (where you were eligible) to email us directly at ugamedicine@lancaster.ac.uk, ensuring the following:

• The email comes directly from an official school/college email address
• The email contains an official staff signature and confirms your full name
• The email confirms you were in receipt of or eligible for government-funded Free School Meals

16-19 Bursary:

In order to be eligible for this criteria, you must have been in receipt of or eligible for the government funded 16-19 bursary/Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA).

Please note that we are unable to accept receipt of other bursaries for this criteria that are not government funded (e.g. those funded by your school/college).

Please ask somebody at your school or college (where you were eligible) to email us directly at ugamedicine@lancaster.ac.uk, ensuring the following:

• The email comes directly from an official school/college email address
• The email contains an official staff signature and confirms your full name
• The email confirms you are/were in receipt of or eligible for the government-funded 16-19 bursary/EMA. Please ensure that this email specifically confirms the name of the bursary that you received.

Young Carers are young people who help to look after a relative, such as a parent or sibling, who has a disability, illness, mental health condition, or a drug or alcohol problem. They take on adult responsibilities such as looking after siblings, cleaning and cooking, and physical care (e.g. you may help a family member with getting out of bed), as well as providing emotional support where necessary

As a Young Carer, you may be entitled to additional financial and emotional support, such as gym memberships, taxi fares and support groups. For more information on resources available, please see the link here. 

If you have not done so already, please complete a free Carer’s Assessment with your local authority. A young carer's assessment is separate from any needs assessment(s) that the person you care for might have.

We strongly recommend that you begin the process of obtaining an assessment as soon as possible, as there are often significant waiting times and these can take a number of weeks or months to complete. We would encourage you to let us know if you are in the process of arranging an assessment and keep us up to date with the process.

If you are aged 18+ (and therefore unable to complete a young carer’s assessment), or there are significant challenges associated with you carrying out one of these assessments, then we may be able to consider an alternative form of evidence. Please email ugamedicine@lancaster.ac.uk with further information for guidance.

You indicated that you have been in local authority care for a minimum of three months. This can include any of the following:

• Foster placement or adoption
• Kinship care
• Residential care or children’s home
• Secure care home

Please ask your Social Worker or Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO) to email ugamedicine@lancaster.ac.uk, confirming that you have been placed in local authority care for three months or more. This confirmation should come from an official local authority email address with an official signature. Please ensure that their email contains the following:

• Your full name
• The dates you have been in care
• The nature of your care, e.g. foster placement/residential children’s home, along with a brief outline of your care circumstances

If you do not have a current social worker, please contact the Admissions team for guidance at ugamedicine@lancaster.ac.uk.

Applicants who are considered Care Leavers/Experienced may be eligible for additional assistance from Lancaster University, including a bursary, extended accommodation and one-to-one support. For more information, please see the link here: Lancaster University Care Leaver Information.   

Please send evidence of your Refugee status (e.g. a letter or travel document from the Home Office) to ugamedicine@lancaster.ac.uk. If you were granted Refugee status when you entered the UK but your residential status has now changed, please send a historic document which contains confirmation of your Refugee status when you entered the UK.

If you selected the UCAS Residence Category "Refugee" on your application, this information will be captured by the Undergraduate Admissions team and verified when they assess your fee status. If you are contacted by them regarding your fee status, please make sure you respond with the relevant evidence as soon as possible to avoid delays in processing your application. 

You may be eligible for additional assistance from Lancaster University, including a scholarship. For more information, please see the link here.

We will automatically review your postcode against a number of measures to determine whether your home postcode is in an area of disadvantage, both in terms of progression to higher education and deprivation. You do not need to send us any further information in support of this criteria, as we will obtain this from UCAS.

To evaluate this, we currently use POLAR4 and TUNDRA measures of participation in higher education in your area. We also use data from the Index of Multiple Deprivation to determine if you live in an area of disadvantage.

If your postcode meets our threshold based on one of the above measures, this will count as one widening participation ‘flag’. There is no additional advantage given to applicants with a postcode meeting more than one of our thresholds.

We will automatically review whether both your GCSE school and A Level school/college are considered ‘below average’ by our measures. You do not need to send us any further information in support of this criteria, as we will obtain this from UCAS.

This criteria is applicable for state non-selective schools only. If you attend(ed) a selective or independent school, your school/college will not be eligible under this criteria.

Please note that currently we are not able to review whether schools outside of England are eligible for this criteria. This is because the equivalent data is not available for other countries.

We calculate a score for each school/college based on the three most recent years of data provided by the Department for Education. For GCSE schools, this is based on attainment 8 data. For A Level schools/colleges, this is based on A Level results data.

We then calculate an overall average score for all schools/colleges over the same time period. This allows us to compare each school/college to our average, and we will calculate thresholds for below average, average, and above average scores.

GCSE and A Level performance are considered as two separate criteria. You do not need a below average school and college in order to be eligible for this. If both your GCSE and A Level school/college are considered below average, then you will meet two of our widening participation ‘flags’.