Application reference

Providing a reference

On your application form, you will need to provide the contact details of two referees.

One must be an academic reference, the second referee may be another academic referee, or where appropriate/relevant, a professional referee.

All of our academic departments attach considerable importance to the report of the academic referee.

This can play a major part in deciding whether an applicant is called for interview and in determining whether an offer is made.

The assessment of previous academic performance is of particular value, as are indications of the strength of an applicant's motivation to study the chosen subject.

A professional reference can also be of use in establishing an applicant’s postgraduate career development and is a requirement for certain courses which stipulate relevant experience as an entry requirement.

How can I check the status of my references?

You can view your reference details in My Imperial.

• Log into your My Imperial account
• Click on the 'References' tile
• You will see a list of the reference details you provided on your application(s)
• Check the 'Request status' column and you will see one of the following statuses:
• Not submitted – the reference request will be sent when your application is submitted
• Pending sent – your application has been submitted and the reference request will be sent shortly
• Sent – the reference request has been sent to your referee's email address
• Complete – your referee has successfully submitted a reference
• Waived – this reference is no longer required

My referee has not received the reference request email

Reference requests are sent on the day you submit your application, or shortly afterwards.

Therefore please ask your referee to check the emails they received on that day, including in their spam folder. The address the email is sent from is admissions.enquiries@imperial.ac.uk. 

If they are still unable to locate the reference request, please ask them to send a reference by email to admissions.enquiries@imperial.ac.uk, quoting your Application ID. This should be sent from an appropriate professional email address.

Nominating a new referee

If you have been informed that your referee is unable to submit a reference for you, please contact an alternative referee directly and ask them to send a reference by email to admissions.enquiries@imperial.ac.uk quoting your Application ID. This should be sent from an appropriate professional email address.

My referee has made an error and needs to re-submit their reference

If your referee has already submitted a reference via our system, but made an error in the document they uploaded, they will need to send a corrected version of the reference letter to admissions.enquiries@imperial.ac.uk. This should be sent from an appropriate professional email address.