How do we respond to and receive offers?

how do we reply and receive potential offers? Is it all via email? As in we'll receive emails telling us we have an offer and what the conditions are? Generally there will be an online application system (different for each uni) and offers will be made through that. You might get emails or you might have to log in to check.

Furthermore I understand the offers will usually be conditional like it is with undergrad - well how do they receive your final year grades? I gather it isn't the same as alevels where they are automatically sent them? Is it our responsibility on results day to get back to the university that has given us offers and accept/send them over our grades? Yep. Again the procedure will vary between unis but is likely to be explained during the application process

Lastly can we apply to and accept as many universities as we want? Or is it like UCAS where you just have a firm and an insurance? Yes, you can apply to as many as you want, and hold as many offers as you want, declining when you're ready (although don't hold on to an offer that you've no intention of taking up). Universities are used to offers being accepted and then declined because of the difficulty in finding funding.

In practice though, you're probably restricted by some extent by the number of times that your referees are willing to write references for you - they are likely to get fed up with endless requests. Another complication is that some unis will ask for deposits which are forfeit if you don't take up the offer. So in practice it's likely to be better to apply to a few carefully chosen unis rather than lots of random applications.

Hi everyone,

Sorry I'm really new to the entire subject of postgraduate study. I've only looked at a couple of Universities so far but they all seem to take applications online directly to the institution (so no need for UCAS or anything like we have with undergrad -which I sort of figured).

But that left me wondering - how do we reply and receive potential offers? Is it all via email? As in we'll receive emails telling us we have an offer and what the conditions are?
Furthermore I understand the offers will usually be conditional like it is with undergrad - well how do they receive your final year grades? I gather it isn't the same as alevels where they are automatically sent them? Is it our responsibility on results day to get back to the university that has given us offers and accept/send them over our grades?
Lastly can we apply to and accept as many universities as we want? Or is it like UCAS where you just have a firm and an insurance?


Sorry for possibly asking a really stupid question. Thanks in advance for the help!