Think that most universities don’t interview applicants? Don’t be so sure! They are more likely to crop up with certain courses and places.
No need to panic – our checklist will take away the fright factor.
Interviews and auditions can be just one part of the university admissions process along with your:
- predicted grades
- GCSE and other confirmed grades
- UCAS reference
- personal statement
- submitted work, where requested
- entry test results, where applicable.
Without a crystal ball, it’s impossible to say for definite whether you’ll be interviewed or not. But the likelihood of being invited to an interview depends on either the universities or the courses you’re applying for.
Universities that tend to interview
Very few universities tend to interview all or most of their applicants. The exceptions that most people know about are the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, where the interview forms an important part of the process.
But they’re not the only ones. Imperial College London and University College London will also interview most of their applicants.
Many of our courses require applicants to be interviewed as part of the application process. You can find more information about a department’s interview process, on individual department websites.
Some departments might ask you to participate in group tasks and selection activities or attend an interview during the open day. For some degrees, such as fine art and architecture, the portfolio of work you are asked to bring is vital to the consideration of your application.
Other departments may ask you to take certain tests and exercises during the day, such as writing a short essay.
Courses that tend to interview
If you have chosen the course that you want to study, it is useful to know the ‘odds’ on whether to expect that interview invite.
A lot of the time it comes down to an individual course department as to whether you’ll be interviewed or not, but we’ve roughly listed out the likelihood by broad subject areas.
- Most likely: professional training degrees, such as dentistry, primary education, social work and nursing.
- Possible: talent-based degrees such as music, acting, art and design.
- You never know: sciences, engineering, computing.
- Least likely: humanities and social science degrees such as English, politics, history and geography.
Don’t let the prospect of an interview put you off applying. Prepare for it properly, and in good time, and you’ll breeze it. See our article on how best to prepare for interviews for some useful tips.
If in doubt, read the small print
As always, there are exceptions to the trend. Let’s take a few examples.
Computing: less likely to be interviewed?
- No interview: University of Nottingham
- Occasional interview: University of East Anglia
- Yes, interview: University of Birmingham, Imperial College London, University of York
English literature: unlikely to be interviewed, right?
- No interview: University of Bristol, University of Cardiff, University of Durham, University of Nottingham, University of Sheffield
- Possible interview: Kings College London
- Yes, interview: University of Cambridge, Queen Mary University of London, University College London, University of Warwick
Architecture: portfolio or interview?
- Interview and portfolio: University College London
- Portfolio, not interview: Kingston University London, University of Cardiff (four sheets of A4), University of Sheffield (10 sheets of A4), University of Manchester (digital portfolio via blog)
Whatever you’re applying for, you need to get into the guts of the departmental website of the course you are considering to find out about interviews - or note it down as one of your questions to ask at an open day.
