Help & Support

Applications to the PARTNERS Programme 2025 entry will open mid-September 2024.

The application form will be available here 

You should submit your application to the PARTNERS Programme at the same time as you submit your UCAS application.

For students in sixth form/college, this would be in year 13/second year of college. You can also apply after school/college at any time, provided you don't already have a higher education degree.

Applications to Medicine & Surgery (A100) and Dental Surgery (A206) close on 15th October 2024.

Applications to all other courses will firmly close on Wednesday 29th January 2025.

As long as you have submitted your separate PARTNERS application, you don't need to worry about adding the P into UCAS.

This may mean that you are made a typical offer to your course first, but once your PARTNERS application has been fully processed, this will be amended to the lower PARTNERS offer. 

If you've checked the eligibility criteria for PARTNERS and you meet at least one of them, along with the essential conditions (including the predicted grade requirement for the course that you're applying to), then we will be able to accept you to the Programme. This will be confirmed upon receipt of a verified PARTNERS application form.

There is no limit to the number of students that we can accept to PARTNERS and the process of being accepted to PARTNERS is not competitive.

Please note: acceptance to PARTNERS does not guarantee an offer of study. This decision is made by the admissions department upon review of your UCAS application.

• Check whether you're eligible for PARTNERS

Check with your teacher that they are happy to act as your referee, then contact us with the following information:

• your school/college's name and postcode
• your referee's name
• your referee's job title
• your referee's email address

Upon receipt of this information, we'll add your referee to the system, so that they appear on the PARTNERS application form.

PARTNERS applicants to Medicine and Dentistry may be invited to interview with a lower UCAT score than typical applicants. This is not guaranteed each year as it depends on the performance of the applicants in that year as a whole.

For Medicine (A100), PARTNERS applicants are ranked separately to typical applicants. You can read the Medical Admissions Policy here

Applications for 2025 entry Medicine are assessed under a new admissions policy to previous years, so we are unable to advise on thresholds for the coming year.

Yes, you can apply to PARTNERS after you have left school/college. You will need to ask a former teacher/tutor to verify your PARTNERS application so please do bear this in mind.

Please also factor in attendance at the PARTNERS Academic Summer School when planning your gap year.

Yes.

Please keep in mind that you must attend the Academic Summer School in the year that you apply.

For example, if you apply during the 2024/25 entry cycle and defer your entry to 2026, you still need to complete the Summer School in Summer 2025

If you are applying for the same (or similar) subject and you have already successfully completed the PARTNERS Academic Summer School up to two years ago, you do not need to complete PARTNERS again but can receive the lower offer if you're still eligible. So that we can assess your eligibility, you must still submit a PARTNERS application form. For example:

• you completed PARTNERS in 2023 or 2024 for the same subject area that you're applying for 2025 entry, you don't need to do the Summer School again
• you do need to submit a PARTNERS application form so that we can assess your eligibility for the lower offer

If you are applying to a different subject area and/or it's over two years since you took part in PARTNERS, you will need to apply to PARTNERS and successfully complete the Summer School. For example:

• you completed PASS 2024, but it was in a different subject area than what you're applying for 2025 entry
• you will need to submit a PARTNERS application form and successfully complete the Summer School in the subject area that you're applying for 2024 entry

This depends on the course you are applying to. Not of all of our undergraduate degree courses accept access to HE qualifications, and most of them won't lower the offer for PARTNERS therefore you wouldn't be accepted on to the programme. 

To look at the entry requirements for the course you are interested in, please visit: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/undergraduate/degrees/

If you are still unsure, you can get in touch with us here. 

100% attendance at the PARTNERS Academic Summer School (PASS) is compulsory as successful completion would make up part of your offer to study at Newcastle University.

We can only make exceptions in cases of personal circumstances where evidence is provided, for example in the form of a doctor’s note. Students are made aware of the dates of the Summer School at the point of application, so we're unable to allow for absences due to holidays

PASS 2025 will take place between Sunday 29 June to Friday 11 July, you must keep these dates free in order to successfully complete the programme, potentially as well as some time needed to complete compulsory assessments up until 18 July

You can still apply.

The list of schools on our website means that a student attending one of these and applying for PARTNERS would be automatically eligible for the programme. Although we have never put a cap on the number of students who can apply for the programme, due to the implications on numbers we do have to manage the number of automatically eligible schools.

If your school is not listed on this page, students from your school would still be able to apply for the programme if they meet one of our other eligibility criteria.

Yes.

The PARTNERS Programme is open to all applicants to all of our undergraduate degree programmes, regardless of age.

No.

The PARTNERS Programme is not available to students who have successfully made the transition to higher education and completed a degree (eg BSc or BA) or higher degree (eg MA, MSc or MRes).

No, we are unable to consider the general disruption caused by the Coronavirus pandemic as personal extenuating circumstances. This is recognising that all students across the country have been affected by this.

However, if you consider the impact of Coronavirus on your personal circumstances to be extreme then we may be able to make an exception. Circumstances we would consider include:

• you have experienced serious illness and spent a prolonged period in hospital as a result of Coronavirus
• you have suffered a close family bereavement due to Coronavirus
• you have significant caring responsibilities as a result of Coronavirus (e.g. caring for someone extremely clinically vulnerable/shielding)
• it has created or exacerbated a very difficult or dangerous living situation

Contact the team and we will consider circumstances on a case by case basis. Please note, you and your referee must be willing to detail your circumstances and in some instances may be asked to provide supporting evidence to determine your eligibility.

Through the PARTNERS Programme, the entry requirements to Newcastle University are up to three A level grades (or equivalent) lower than the typical entry requirements.

This means that if you're concerned about your predicted/achieved grades being too low for entry to Newcastle University, then PARTNERS could help! 

PARTNERS is available to any Newcastle University undergraduate course. Check the link below for more information. 

Find out more about the lower contextual PARTNERS offer.

You can apply to PARTNERS with a range of other qualifications such as BTECs and Cambridge Technicals however, this is course dependent. To find out the entry requirements for your course, head to our course pages here. If you’re still unclear, get in touch.

No, our admissions team will make a decision on inviting you to interview based on your UCAT score. You can read about the selection process for Medicine here and contact the school of Dental Sciences here.

You would lose your reduced offer and our admissions team would then adjust your offer accordingly, in most cases this would revert back to the ‘typical’ grades for your chosen course – but this is not a guarantee.

Our 'On Course to PASS' series is designed to prepare you for university life and the PARTNERS Academic Summer School. These events are optional, but you'll get the chance to meet current students, take part in activities with fellow PARTNERS applicants and ask the PARTNERS team your questions. 

You can see what's coming up by heading to our events page here.

By registering for an online event, you are agreeing to adhere to the following:

PARTNERS Online Event - Code of Conduct

PARTNERS Online Event - Online Etiquette