Support and FAQs

The Disability Advisory Service is committed to providing the best possible support for all students at Imperial. They understand that each person's disability or impairment can affect them in different ways and therefore the support offered is flexible and tailored.

You can find out more, including how to make an appointment if you would like access to adjustments and support, on The Disability Advisory Service's webpages.

Imperial's Student Counselling and Mental Health Advice Service is available to support students with their mental health. Support offered includes Individual and Group Counselling, workshops and courses, and access to SilverCloud, an online platform that hosts self-help programmes for a range of difficulties. They also provide advice for coping with feelings of anxiety, stress, loneliness, low mood, depression, grief and loss, or problems at home.

The Student Support Zone also offer information and advice on mental health on their website, including tips on how you can support your mental wellbeing.

You can find full information on how to access a doctor, a dentist and urgent healthcare as a student on the Student Support Zone's webpages.

You may apply for a deferral of entry, under exceptional circumstances.

Requests for deferral are considered at the discretion of the academic department you applied to and will be based on a change of circumstances that is outside your control, and could not have been foreseen.

Please contact the academic department you have applied to if you wish to request a deferral, outlining your reasons for deferring. You can find the contact details for your department in the ‘further information’ section of the webpage for your chosen course.

You should also review the postgraduate admissions deferment policy which outlines general guiding principles to deferment requests and the process.

Does Imperial take part in Clearing?

Imperial does not typically enter into Clearing, which is a UCAS process that lets you apply for a course which still has places for the current year of entry.

You should check universities’ websites and UCAS for details of which courses have Clearing places. You can find out more about Clearing on the UCAS website.

If I narrowly miss my grades in the summer, should I retake or go through Clearing?

If you don’t achieve the grades in your Imperial offer, we will carefully reconsider your application during the confirmation period.

Your department will then take a decision about whether to confirm your place based on the grades you have achieved and the spaces available at that time.

If your place with Imperial is not confirmed, you may end up being placed with your Insurance Choice institution (if you have one, and if they accept your grades).

If you are unsuccessful at securing a place with either your Firm Choice or Insurance Choice university, you still have options:

• Reapply for the following year of entry in the new UCAS cycle (you may choose to resit or retake exams at the next available opportunity)
• Enter into UCAS Clearing to try to secure a place for the current year of entry

Read our page Exam results: What next? for important information on key issues, including offer conditions, results, and Firm/Insurance Choices. 

Your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) statement will be available in your My Imperial student portal after you have completed both of these actions:

• You have satisfied all your offer conditions (have a status of unconditional-firm)
• You have uploaded a valid passport to My Imperial

We aim to upload your CAS within five business days of these actions being completed. Occasionally, this timeline may be longer if there are additional checks that need to be undertaken to confirm the correct information for your CAS issuance.

We can only issue your CAS five months before the start of your programme so the majority will be issued from May onwards.

As a result of changes to the UK Visa and Immigration process, non-EEA nationals who apply for a student visa will need to collect a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) within 10 days of arriving in the UK.

Normally BRPs are delivered to a local post office for collection. However, Imperial is also allowing students to collect BRPs from the South Kensington Campus.

In order for your BRP to be delivered to Imperial, as part of your visa application process, you will need to enter the Alternative Collection Location (ACL) code 2HE497, when asked.

You can find more information about this on our International Student Support pages.

EEA nationals

If you are from the EEA and you need to apply for a student visa, your immigration permissions will be issued electronically; you will not be issued a BRP.