How to apply

Our application processes are designed to be user-friendly but will vary from department to department. Our staff are happy to advise if you have any queries about your application.

For postgraduate study, applicants should have a good honours degree (at least a 2:2 honours for taught programmes and a minimum 2:1 honours for research degrees) or equivalent. Our departments have considerable experience in evaluating qualifications and accept a wide range from all over the world. Other academic and professional qualifications and experience may also be taken into account and in some cases form an integral part of the entry requirements.

Distance learning courses may have up to four ‘intakes’ of students each year. To find out application deadlines for specific courses, please contact the relevant department.

Applying to Leicester

Gather supporting documents before completing your online application

Please provide the following documents when submitting your application to enable us to make a prompt decision.

References

Please see the ‘entry requirements’ information on the relevant course page to find out whether your course requires references in support of your application. Your referees can be academic (tutors, lecturers, mentors) or professional (managers, supervisors, colleagues). References must be written in English.

If required for your course, please either:

provide contact details for your referees on your application. We will then email them to request your references; or
if you have organised recent, signed and dated references yourself please upload them to your application.

Certificates and transcripts

The certificates and transcripts are also sometimes known as diploma certificates or supplements. Please take copies of your original documents and upload these to your online application. If these are not in English we will require both original copies and certified translations.

Personal statement

Your personal statement should focus on the following areas:

Your reasons for applying for the course
How your knowledge and experience links to the course content
How the course relates to your longer term plans.

Please see the ‘entry requirements’ section of the course page, which will detail any additional requirements of your personal statement.

Evidence of English language

If your first language is not English, you may be required to provide evidence of your English language ability.

If you do not meet the requirements in one of the ways listed then it would be necessary to take one of the accepted English tests. As a convenient alternative, for some of our courses you may be able to take our online Leicester English Test (LET) which costs £40. You will be provided with details about the LET if you receive a conditional offer of a place on your chosen course. Please note that the LET cannot be taken as an alternative English language test for courses in the School of Education.

CV/Résumé

If you are applying for the MBA, please provide a copy of your current CV or résumé. Your CV or résumé should demonstrate your management skills and responsibilities in some detail and include clear dates for each job.

Agents

We work with a number of agency partners around the world to make sure that our courses reach local audiences efficiently and effectively. Our agency partners can provide you with advice about our courses as well as offering guidance on completing your application.

Completing your application form

You can apply online for a distance learning course by scrolling to the bottom of your chosen course page and clicking on the 'apply now' button. A pop-up box will appear. Please select the country where you will be residing during your studies and your preferred start date, then click on the 'continue' button.

If you have not applied before, select the ‘new user’ button on the right hand side of the page. Otherwise, log-in using your email address and password. Once you have begun your application you can save and return to it at a later time.

Follow the instructions to complete the application form, upload your supporting documents and click ‘submit’. You will receive an email to confirm that we have received your application.

If you were unable to upload your supporting documents before submitting your application you can upload these later through MyStudentRecord. If you are unable to upload these please contact the relevant Distance Learning Team.

Assessment of your application

Once we have received your completed application and all supporting documents, we will aim to contact you regarding your application within two working days. In some cases where supporting documents are pending we may issue a conditional offer.

Application decisions are provided by email and include details of your next steps. If you receive an offer and wish to receive a hard copy for funding or other purposes, please contact the relevant Distance Learning Team.

After you have applied

Accepting your offer

After we have received your application, you will be informed whether or not you have been successful within 28 days. You may be contacted for further information or be invited to come to an interview.

If we make you an offer, please let us know if you would like to accept that offer. You can do this by logging in to MyStudentRecord and clicking on the 'my applications' page. If you have not already signed-up for a MyStudentRecord account, you will need to click on the ‘new user’ button and follow the on-screen instructions to create your password.

Fee payment and registration

Information about your payment schedule and how to register to start you study will be sent to you shortly before the start of your course. In order to register on your course you will need to pay at least the first instalment of your tuition fees. To complete registration for your course you will need to complete the following steps.

Payment

If you are paying all of your fees yourself it will be necessary for the University to have received at least the first instalment, before you register.

If a part of your fee is being paid by a sponsor or other funding source, you will need to pay a proportion of the remaining amount yourself.

We recommend allowing at least two days for payments made by credit or debit card through the University’s online e-pay site and 14 days for all other payment methods. If you choose to pay by bank transfer, please include your student number as a reference number and let us know you have made the payment.

Information on funding your studies can be found on our distance learning fees, funding and scholarships page.

Find out more about the ways to pay.

Registration

Registration will open approximately six weeks prior to your course start date. You will receive an email to notify you of this alongside other useful information about starting your programme.

Registration takes approximately fifteen minutes and involves creating a University IT account. This will provide you with a University email address, access to Blackboard, and Library resources.

Please note that the University will need to have either received your first tuition fee instalment, or have confirmation of your sponsorship or external funding before you can register. You must complete registration by the start date of your course.

Starting your studies

Once you have registered, you will receive a welcome email explaining the next steps in preparing for your studies. Your online course materials will be available on Blackboard from the first day of the course. If printed materials are provided as part of your studies, these will be sent to you via DHL.

Student ID cards

ID cards for distance learning students (undergraduate and postgraduate taught) will be posted out to the address provided during online registration (so long as you have provided us with a suitable photo). Cards will be dispatched as soon as possible after registration has closed for the intake and we will notify students via email to confirm their ID card is on the way.