Contextual Offer Aston Ready

Aston Ready at a glance

Aston Ready is our contextual offer scheme that could reduce your undergraduate offer by one or two grades. Assessed at the point of application, there are no additional forms to fill in.

The criteria you have to meet

To receive an Aston Ready offer, you must have attended a state school, be assessed as a Home student for fee purposes AND will need to meet one of the following criteria:

Live in a low participation neighbourhood (POLAR 4, quintile 1 or POLAR 4, quintile 2). You can check if your home address is eligible and by looking for 'Quintile One’ or 'Quintile 2' next to POLAR 4.

OR

Complete an Aston Pathways programme. If you have completed one of our Pathways programmes during Year 12 and 13, you will need to email the Pathway Team with your UCAS number at the point that you submit your UCAS application form to ensure that you made an Aston Ready offer.

For information on our Pathway Programmes (Healthcare, STEM, Business and Law) please visit pathways

OR

Have spent time in local authority care. To qualify for a contextual offer applicants will need to declare that they are a care leaver on their UCAS form. We would normally also expect the applicant’s referee to confirm that the applicant is a care leaver.

OR

Have been granted Refugee status from the Home Office.

If you are accepted onto the scheme, you will receive a lower Aston Ready contextual offer. Typically, the Aston Ready contextual offer will be one or two grades lower than the standard offer. For example, ABB will become BBC.

Please note that BSC Healthcare Science (Audiology), and the Business and Social Sciences Foundation Years are not eligible for Aston Ready.

MBChB Medicine

For 2024 Medicine will also form part of the Aston Ready contextual offer scheme. As well as the above criteria, applicants for Medicine will also have additional criteria that they can meet to be eligible for the scheme.

All home fee applicants, except those who are in the final year of their undergraduate degree or have already graduated with a degree or attended an independent school, will be reviewed against our widening participation criteria to establish whether they fulfil one of more of the criteria. State grammar school applicants would be eligible for consideration under the Scheme.

• Meet one or more of the existing Aston Ready criteria (see above)

OR

• You have been eligible for the UCAT bursary. This data will be provided to Aston University by the UCAT Consortium.

OR

You have been eligible for free school meals by the end of key stage 4, within the last 6 years. This data will be provided to Aston University by UCAS' Modernised Contextual Data Service (MCDS).

What else you get

If you receive a contextual offer from Aston University there are a number of support mechanisms available to you. These will include study skills sessions, academic writing sessions and support with personal statements via your school or college if they are eligible.

If you have any questions about the scheme, give us a call 0121 204 3030, email undergraduate admissions.