Results days and the confirmation process

There isn’t just one results day. While the majority of our offer holders in the UK will receive their A level or other results on 14 August, we accept students with a wide range of qualifications, many of which have different results release dates. 

Regardless of when your results are available, the process for confirming your place to study remains largely the same. The main difference is whether we receive your results from UCAS or if we rely on you to provide them.

The results we receive from UCAS are: 

• AS, A levels and EPQs, from AQA, WJEC, Eduqas, OCR, CCEA, Cambridge International and Pearson
• Welsh Baccalaureate
• BTEC
• OCR Cambridge Technicals
• International Baccalaureate
• SQA Scottish Highers, Advanced Highers, HNCs and HNDs
• City & Guilds Diplomas & Certificates
• Access to HE
• T Levels
• Irish Leaving Certificates
• Level 3 HE progression relevant vocational qualifications from NCFE, VTCT, UAL, and other exam boards. 

If you are waiting for other exam results you will need to send them to us so that we can assess if we can confirm your place – this includes GCSE and National 5 results.  

Confirmation is the process where universities match your exam results to the offer they made and decide if they can confirm your place.

If we receive your results through UCAS, we often get them a few days before you, which allows us to make a decision ahead of results day. You can then log in to your UCAS Hub on results day to check your status. If we don’t receive your results through UCAS, we won’t be able to make a decision until you provide them directly.

If you selected Reading as your firm choice and the course you were offered participates in our firm dropped grade guarantee, we will still confirm your place even if you miss your offer by one grade. If this applies to your course, you’ll find details on our website and in your offer email.

We sometimes have flexibility to confirm places for offer holders who don’t meet their conditions. This depends on course availability, extenuating circumstances, or if the admissions tutor is impressed by other aspects of your application, such as your personal statement.

We can only make a decision if we have all your qualifications and any additional conditions attached to your offer (such as English language test results). If we’re missing anything, we’ll contact you to let you know what’s still needed.

If the University of Reading was your insurance choice, you will only be confirmed here if your firm choice rejects you. We review all eligible insurance choice candidates, and as long as we have all your results, your place should be automatically confirmed if your firm choice rejects you. If we are unable to confirm your place, we will contact you to explain why.