Your firm choice is the course you most want to take. If that offer is conditional, UCAS also lets you keep one other offer as insurance. Only use that option for a course you'd genuinely be willing to attend.
Once you have decisions from all your choices, UCAS lets you reply to the offers you hold. You accept one offer as firm and, if that offer is conditional, you can accept one other offer as insurance. Before choosing either, read the full wording of each offer again, including the course, campus, start date and every condition attached to it. If a changed-course offer or an unfamiliar condition is still unclear, check UCAS Offers and University Decisions Explained before you reply.
Choose the course you most want as your firm
Start with the course you'd choose if all your offers were unconditional. An A*AA offer from a better-known university doesn't need to sit above an ABB offer for a course you prefer. If you're still genuinely torn between the universities themselves, go back to the University Options hub before choosing your firm.
Read the conditions attached to your preferred offer just as closely. An ambitious offer is still a sensible firm choice when it is the course you prefer and you believe the conditions are within reach. Check subject-specific grades, points totals and any other requirements in the exact offer wording. If the conditions are a stretch, make sure the insurance gives you a genuine alternative.
Your insurance needs to be a course you would actually take
You don't have to choose an insurance. If you accept an unconditional offer as your firm, the place is confirmed and you don't choose an insurance. If your firm is conditional, the insurance can itself be conditional or unconditional. UCAS advises choosing an insurance with lower offer conditions.
Compare the full conditions, not just the headline grades. Suppose your firm requires AAB including an A in Chemistry and another offer requires ABB with no subject-specific grade. If your results are ABB with a B in Chemistry, you have missed the firm conditions but met the insurance conditions. An insurance offer that also required AAB including an A in Chemistry wouldn't help with that result.
Don't choose an insurance simply because its conditions look safe if you already know you would refuse the place. If you'd rather look for another course than attend it, leave it out. Missing the firm conditions doesn't automatically send you to the insurance, because the firm university still decides whether to confirm a near miss.
Your UCAS Hub gives you the reply deadline
Your deadline is based on when UCAS receives the last decision from your university choices. The date shown in your Hub is the one to follow. For 2027 undergraduate entry, the standard reply dates are:
| Last decision received by |
Reply deadline |
| 31 March 2027 |
5 May 2027 |
| 12 May 2027 |
2 June 2027 |
| 14 July 2027 |
21 July 2027 |
The first two dates don't apply when you're using Extra to find a place; the 21 July deadline includes Extra. If you miss the deadline shown in your Hub, UCAS declines the offers on your behalf. You don't have to wait for an outstanding university if you're certain you no longer want that choice: UCAS lets you withdraw it permanently and then reply to the offers already received. Withdrawing ends that university's consideration of you, so don't use it merely to bring the reply date forward.
If a course starts before your normal UCAS reply date, contact that university about its timetable. UCAS says a university that sets an earlier deadline for an early-start course may withdraw the offer if you don't reply by the date it gives you.
What you agree to when you reply
When you submit your replies, every offer you haven't kept as firm or insurance is declined. If your firm is confirmed, that's the place you've accepted and you don't then choose the insurance instead. How UCAS Results Day Works explains what happens if the firm isn't confirmed when results and the universities' final decisions arrive.
If you change your mind after replying
If you contact UCAS within 14 days of submitting your replies, UCAS lets you change them once without asking the universities for permission. After 14 days, or if you want to change the replies more than once, the affected universities need to agree and UCAS doesn't guarantee that the change will be possible. For 2027 entry, the final deadline for undergraduate reply swaps is 22 July at 18:00 UK time.
