The Student Room Group

Do i qualify for the Contextual offers at UCL for medicine?

So basically the 6th form college i go to falls under the category for the underdeveloped (i think that’s the term) percentile and my POLAR4 quintile is 1 for my postcode. Based on the survey for Access UCL i should be qualified but here’s the thing. The place that i live is right on the boundary of the Quintile 1 area and the area it borders is Quintile 4. Technically, the area i live is supposed to be part of the quintile 4 as if you ask anybody they will say “oh that’s area X” and not the area Y that has the Quintile 1 that would be needed for UCL’s Access scheme. Basically, i’m wondering if the areas that the POLAR4 sections with borders are subject to change or whether they are locked in and i can qualify for the schemes using the Office for Students map. Sorry if it’s not clear i’m happy to elaborate on anything that doesn’t make sense.
My understanding is it's based on postcode area, which are formally defined regions. So it doesn't matter whether someone "considers" your postcode area to be part of another postcode area, it will be based on where the boundaries have been drawn in the official materials.

They provide some further detail on their website here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/access-ucl-schemehttps://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/access-ucl-scheme

"Q. What postcode measures does UCL use to determine eligibility?

A: We use the Index of Multiple of Deprivation and Acorn data to identify levels of financial, social or economic deprivation. We use POLAR classification to look at how likely young people are to participate in Higher Education across the UK. These are defined by your home postcode. The datasets UCL is using to assess applications received in the 2024/25 admissions cycle are:

Polar 4: Office for National Statistics (ONS) postcode directory from November 2022 and Office for Students (OfS) POLAR4 data from 2020. (Quintile 1 eligible for scheme).
Acorn: Acorn values from 2022 dataset (Groups L, M, O, P, Q eligible for scheme). © 1979 2023 CACI Limited
IMD: ONS postcode directory from November 2022 and England: 2019 dataset; Northern Ireland: 2017 dataset; Scotland: 2020 dataset; Wales: 2019 dataset. (Decile 1 or 2 eligible for scheme).

If you have not found the answer to your question, then please get in touch with the Access UCL Team at [email protected]. "
Reply 2
Original post by artful_lounger
My understanding is it's based on postcode area, which are formally defined regions. So it doesn't matter whether someone "considers" your postcode area to be part of another postcode area, it will be based on where the boundaries have been drawn in the official materials.
They provide some further detail on their website here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/access-ucl-schemehttps://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/access-ucl-scheme
"Q. What postcode measures does UCL use to determine eligibility?
A: We use the Index of Multiple of Deprivation and Acorn data to identify levels of financial, social or economic deprivation. We use POLAR classification to look at how likely young people are to participate in Higher Education across the UK. These are defined by your home postcode. The datasets UCL is using to assess applications received in the 2024/25 admissions cycle are:
Polar 4: Office for National Statistics (ONS) postcode directory from November 2022 and Office for Students (OfS) POLAR4 data from 2020. (Quintile 1 eligible for scheme).
Acorn: Acorn values from 2022 dataset (Groups L, M, O, P, Q eligible for scheme). © 1979 2023 CACI Limited
IMD: ONS postcode directory from November 2022 and England: 2019 dataset; Northern Ireland: 2017 dataset; Scotland: 2020 dataset; Wales: 2019 dataset. (Decile 1 or 2 eligible for scheme).
If you have not found the answer to your question, then please get in touch with the Access UCL Team at [email protected]. "


thank you so this means that the postcode areas are not subject to change then? like say the postcode area was called new street, if someone’s home was in new street in the 2023 version of POLAR4 would they 100% still be in new street in the 2024 version? It’s alright if you don’t know it’s just a way for me to ensure i know what i’m getting myself into
Original post by Anonymous
thank you so this means that the postcode areas are not subject to change then? like say the postcode area was called new street, if someone’s home was in new street in the 2023 version of POLAR4 would they 100% still be in new street in the 2024 version? It’s alright if you don’t know it’s just a way for me to ensure i know what i’m getting myself into

I assume postcode zones get reassessed at some frequency but I have no idea how/when. I think if you meet the current requirements it's pretty unlikely you wouldn't in the coming academic year. So I expect you'd be fine :smile: of course there's probably no way to guarantee.

That said at most its one out of five choices on your UCAS application and unless you are applying for your other 4 choices to unis you are very unlikely to get an offer from, it's unlikely to be a great risk in any event.

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