A student walking in-front of old college buildings
A student in front of Christ Church
(Image credit: Steve Langton / Graduate Photography Competition)

Graduate Applicant Self Service

Once your application has been reviewed by Graduate Admissions, you will be able to access Graduate Applicant Self Service when you log in to your application account. This initial review is usually completed within a few working days but may take longer around application deadlines.

The University of Oxford’s Graduate Applicant Self Service tool allows you to manage your application once you have submitted it.

The tool allows you to:

  • Identify whether your application is complete and find out what documents are still required
  • Upload any missing documents
  • Re-send notifications to your referees, edit their details or register new referees
  • Update your contact details
  • View your application documents
  • View the outcome of your application
  • Accept or decline offers
  • Access and download relevant documentation
  • Withdraw your application. 

If you upload replacement documents after the deadline (excluding transcripts and language test scores), we will reject them, as accepting them would change the completion date of your application and result in your application being considered late and not considered by the academic department.

You can access Graduate Applicant Self Service for submitted applications after you log in to the online application system:

Log in for self service Frequently asked questions

Viewing your submitted application

Once you reach the ‘My Applications’ screen, click on the ‘Self Service’ button next to the relevant application for access.

If your application has been processed, you can view a copy of the information originally submitted by you (ie before you made any changes in Self Service). To do this, click the ‘View Application PDF’ button. A PDF will be downloaded. You can print a copy of the PDF by clicking on File in the top left-hand corner of the document, then ‘Print’. If you want to view your supporting documents, please use the ‘Supporting Documents’ button.

Please note, if your application is not yet available, you will only be able to view a PDF of your application. 

Application status

You will be able to check whether your application is under review, incomplete or ready for assessment, as well as the status of your references.

To find out the current status of your application, scroll down the page to view the Status for your application(s). 

If your application becomes complete and ready for assessment, the final outcome of your application will be communicated to you via email and will also be shown in Self-Service.

If your application is incomplete at the final deadline for your course, or becomes complete after that final deadline, it will show as being incomplete. It is unlikely to be considered by the academic department; if they choose to do so, they will contact you for the missing materials.

Withdrawing your application

If you no longer wish your application to be considered or you will be unable to take up a place you have been offered, you can withdraw your application via Self-Service.

Click ‘Withdraw application’ and select one of the reasons offered. Once completed, you will receive an email to confirm that your application has been withdrawn. The relevant academic department and allocated college (if applicable) will be automatically notified of the withdrawal so you do not need to take any further action.

Please only withdraw your application if this is your final decision. It is not normally possible to make a second application to the same course for the same year.

It is not necessary to withdraw applications you have not submitted or notify us that you do not intend to submit. These will be deleted at the end of the following admissions cycle in accordance with our Postgraduate Applicant Privacy Policy.

Managing your references

You can use self-service to change a referee’s email address if it was entered incorrectly and to send a new request to the corrected address. You can also add a new referee if one of your original referees is not able to fulfil the request.

You can re-send the automated reference request to your referees as a reminder or if a referee has misplaced the original request. However, we would strongly recommend that you contact your referees personally before re-sending the request.

Graduate applications will be considered ready for assessment once two of the references have been submitted, as well as all the other required documents. Note that the third reference may still be required later by the academic department.

Check the status of your references

To check whether your references have been submitted, click on the Manage Referees button for the relevant application.

In the Referee Details table, the right hand column will display whether the reference has been submitted.

For any referees that have not yet completed your reference you will be given the options to:

  • Send a reminder reference request email (Resend Reference Request)
  • Edit the referee’s email address (Edit Referee); or
  • Add another referee (Add Referee).


You will only be able to send one reminder email per day to each referee. Once you have sent the reminder, the 'Resend Reference Request' button for that referee will be disabled until the next day. The maximum number of referees that you can register for your application is six.

Checking the status of supporting documents 

To check the status of your supporting documents, click on the Supporting Documents button for the relevant application. You will see up to three different tables listing the documents that have been uploaded to your application.

A status will appear by each of the documents that you have uploaded, as well as a View button. 

Table 1: Mandatory document details

All documents that must be received (mandatory documents) before your application is assessed will be listed in this table with their status. If you have uploaded any documents via the Self Service portal that do not meet our requirements, they will be marked as ‘rejected’ with the reason provided, once they have been checked.

Table 2: Uploaded document details (not checked yet)

When you first upload a new document via self-service, the status of the document will show as ‘Uploaded - pending check’. Once the document has been checked, the status of your document will – if it meets our requirements - be updated to ‘Received’. At this point, mandatory documents will be moved from this table to the 'Mandatory Document Details' table, while all other documents will be moved to the ‘Other’ document table.

If a document you have uploaded does not meet our requirements, it will be marked as 'rejected' with the reason provided.

Please note that it may take some time to check documents, particularly around application deadlines when this may take 2-3 weeks, so please refer to the Supporting Documents page in a few days rather than contacting Graduate Admissions. For further information on deadlines and the processing of applications, consult the Graduate Admissions website.

Table 3: Other documents

This table will show any other documents that have been received (‘Received’ status) eg an English Language Test Result.

Document status definitions

Waived

This will show under Mandatory document details only.

Status will display if this mandatory document has been waived, ie does not need to be supplied.

Not received

This will show under Mandatory document details only.

Document was not received (or a newly uploaded document has not been checked yet), see Uploading documents below for information on how to upload a new supporting document.

Received – pending check

This will show under Mandatory document details only.

This means a document has been received but not yet checked.

Received

This will show under Mandatory document details or Other documents.

Document has been received and approved.

Rejected

This will show under Mandatory document details and Other documents, and will not appear for non-mandatory documents uploaded after the application has been submitted. You will also be able to view a PDF of the document which has been rejected so you can check the issue.  

If this status shows, a document was deemed unsatisfactory, the reason for this will be stated. For example, a transcript will be rejected if it does not show the name of the institution it was issued by or your name. A piece of written work will be rejected if it exceeds the word count set by the department or you are listed as a co-author with no explanation as to your contribution.

Full details of the requirements for supporting documents are available on the relevant course page and in the Application Guide 

For instructions on how to upload a new supporting document, see below.

Uploaded - pending check

This will only show under uploaded documents that have not been checked yet.

Uploading documents

If you are still missing any required documents after you apply, you will be able to upload these via Graduate Applicant Self Service. If you are uploading a document that has previously been uploaded, the original will be removed/replaced, except for transcripts and test scores, where multiple documents will be retained. You must ensure that you upload any missing documents before the application deadline that you intend to meet.

Please do not upload any documents that are not required to support your application, such as a degree certificate or photograph.

Once your application is ready for assessment, you will only be able to upload transcripts and/or English language test results. After this point, you will not be able to upload updated versions of the following:

  • CV
  • written work
  • research proposal
  • statement of purpose

If you upload replacement documents after the deadline (excluding transcripts and language test scores), we will reject them, as accepting them would change the completion date of your application and result in your application being considered late and not considered by the academic department.

Once a decision has been made on your application, no further documents can be uploaded.

Updating your details

Contact details

You can edit your home address, correspondence address, email, alternative email, telephone number and alternative telephone number.

Navigate to the contact details section via the  ‘Your Contact Details’ box and use the Edit button to make any changes.

For UK addresses you can enter your postcode and click on Get Address to locate your postal address. Otherwise, you can type your address in.

You can also add a start and end date for your correspondence address when you edit the correspondence address. However, you cannot set a future start date.

Personal details

You can request that your name or date of birth be changed by clicking on the Request Name Change or Date of Birth Change button. Unlike other personal details changes, these will require supporting documentation to be submitted. Select ‘choose file’ to select the relevant document and then ‘upload’ to add it to your request.

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