Can abuse be an extenuating circumstance for university?

For context, I was in an abusive household during my GCSEs (split custody so not all the time) and because of this I focused a lot more on essentially staying alive and making sure my abusive parent didn’t harm themselves that I ended up neglecting revising and school. While I still got good grades, I didn’t get amazing ones.

There have been police reports, warnings, child service, CAMHS and other organisations involved with the abuse but no charges so I don’t know if that would even count as ‘evidence’ if I had to provide any.

I’m asking this because a lot of unis have certain requirements (eg. A in Maths GCSE, since I want to do psychology, which I didn’t get). I’m out of that household now and am confident I will get A*s at A-Level but given my GCSEs I’m not sure a university would accept my application. I’ve always wanted to go to oxbridge but I’m worried that dream is crushed because of my abuser.

The only circumstances I can see for grades at uni is things like your POLAR quartile and other ones similar relating to the poverty or amount of people in higher education in your area, which I don’t fit into.

On top of this (a bit unrelated), the area I live in is good but I only live there because of my brother being disabled and therefore needing certain requirements from the council to be met for a council house (eg. adaptations, lots of space). I am poor but my area doesn’t reflect that, I get FSM but my quartile is 3 so that doesn’t even matter.

I’m really lost on what to do, I’ve considered resitting GCSEs that I didn’t get a high grade in but it would be so stressful and so much work with AS but with maths I feel like I’ve got no other choice.

Reply 1

McGinger

I think you are confusing Contextual offers (lower grade offers made to widen participation to those from low achieving schools or postcode areas), and the extra consideration a Uni may give someone with a specific reason why their GCSE grades etc are lower, or why they may not meet their Uni offer.

Yes, you can tell your intended Unis about why your GCSE grades are low, but unless you also meet the criteria for the Contextual offers, you will still get the standard A level offer.

Read -
Contextual offers | Study at Bristol | University of Bristol
Extenuating circumstances | Study at Bristol | University of Bristol