Use this 2027 entry timeline to identify the deadline that applies to your choices and understand what changes if you apply later.
For most applicants, the date to work towards is 13 January 2027. If you are applying to Oxford, Cambridge or most courses in medicine, dentistry or veterinary medicine/science, the relevant equal consideration deadline is earlier: 15 October 2026. Your school or college may set an earlier internal deadline so it has time to check the application, add predicted grades and complete the reference.
UCAS opened applications for 2027 entry on 12 May 2026 and began accepting completed applications on 1 September. An application submitted in September has no admissions advantage over one submitted in December if both reach UCAS by the relevant equal consideration deadline. Work instead from the earliest deadline attached to any course you are seriously considering.
12 May to 1 September 2026: build the application
From 12 May, you can register and work through the application, but completed undergraduate applications cannot be sent to UCAS until 1 September.
Use that period to finish the sections that depend on you and to organise the parts that involve someone else. UCAS requires a reference before submission unless every university or college you have chosen has agreed that you do not need one. How to Complete Your UCAS Application explains how the application sections fit together.
You do not need to rush to submit on 1 September. An application that reaches UCAS by the relevant equal consideration deadline is considered on the same basis as another application that also arrives on time.
Your school's deadline may be the one you actually work to
If you apply through a school or college, pressing send transfers the application to your centre first. The centre checks it, adds predicted grades where required, completes and approves the reference, and then submits the finished application to UCAS. If something needs correcting, the application has to come back to you before the centre can send it on.
Schools and colleges commonly set internal deadlines earlier than the published UCAS date to leave time for those checks, predicted grades and the reference. The internal date is not another UCAS deadline, but missing it can leave your centre without enough time to finish its part before the real one.
Independent applicants manage the timetable themselves. Your referee still needs time to complete the reference, so the UCAS deadline should be the point by which the finished application arrives, not the day you begin chasing the final pieces.
15 October 2026: the early equal consideration deadline
Applications for any 2027 entry course at Oxford or Cambridge, and for most courses in medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine/science, must reach UCAS by 18:00 UK time on 15 October 2026 to receive equal consideration. Check the deadline on each course listing because that is the safest way to confirm which date applies.
Missing 15 October does not move an early-deadline course into the January on-time window. UCAS still accepts applications after the date, but the provider is no longer required to give them equal consideration and may only consider them if places remain after on-time applications have been assessed.
You also do not have to fill all five UCAS choices before submitting an early-deadline application. A January-deadline choice can be added later, provided you stay within the overall five-choice limit and add it by its own deadline. Leaving a slot unused is useful when the early choices are settled but a later one still needs research.
Admissions tests can create an even earlier deadline. Registration and testing happen outside UCAS, so submitting the application on time does not rescue a missed test deadline. University Admissions Tests: Which Tests You Need and When to Take Them covers those separate timetables.
13 January 2027: the main equal consideration deadline
For most undergraduate courses, UCAS must receive the application by 18:00 UK time on 13 January 2027 for equal consideration.
Equal consideration means that universities and colleges must consider on-time applications on the same basis. It does not mean every applicant has an equal chance of receiving an offer, and an application sent months earlier does not move ahead of another application that also arrived by the deadline.
Applications sent after 13 January can still reach universities, but those providers are not required to consider them. If you are applying late, check that the course remains open before relying on the later dates in the UCAS cycle.
Extra opens on 25 February 2027 for applicants who used all five original choices, hold no offer and are no longer waiting for decisions on those choices. An eligible applicant can add one further choice at a time.
How UCAS Extra Works covers choosing a course, adding the choice and responding to the outcome. The final date to add an Extra choice for 2027 entry is 1 July.
30 June and 2 July 2027: when the route changes to Clearing
A late first-time application received by UCAS by 18:00 UK time on 30 June is still sent to the universities and colleges named as ordinary choices. That does not restore equal consideration if the relevant October or January deadline was missed.
After 18:00 on 30 June, a new application enters Clearing instead. Clearing opens on 2 July 2027 and vacancies are displayed for eligible applicants. How UCAS Clearing Works explains how that route operates.
23 September and 18 October 2027: the final system dates
The final date to submit a 2027 entry UCAS application is 23 September 2027 at 18:00 UK time. By then, you are relying on courses that still have vacancies rather than the ordinary on-time application process.
Clearing continues beyond that application deadline. The final date to add a 2027 entry Clearing choice is 18 October, but individual courses can close as soon as they fill.
For your own planning, work backwards from the first deadline that applies: an earlier school or college deadline if you have one, 15 October for an early-deadline course, or 13 January for most other courses. The later dates keep routes into university open, but none of them restores equal consideration after the deadline for your course has passed.
