University Age Requirements

TSR Wiki > University > University Age Requirements

Quick reference to minimum age requirements for first undergraduate degrees for most courses.

Note: as of 1st October 2006 the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 came into force in the UK. The Regulations also prohibits discrimination in all forms of vocational training including general educational provision at higher education institutions. This means that age limits and age related criteria for entry to training or the terms under which training is provided may be unlawful.

Unlike other discrimination legislation, universities will be able to justify age discrimination if they can show that it is for legitimate reasons. In order to justify this type of discrimination, universities will need to provide evidence if challenged. Circumstances that may be a legitimate reason for discrimination may include reasons related to health and safety of individuals, protecting younger or older workers, training requirements of a particular job or economic factors such as business needs and efficiency.

In effect there are very few legitimate reasons for discriminating against students below a certain age (some restrictions on maximum ages might be legitimate eg the maximum age for entry onto a Medicine degree which is reasonable given the time and expense it takes to train someone to become a doctor)