Grades come first at every UK university, and the offer is made on them. But between the predicted grades and the offer sits a set of questions about what the student has done and thought beyond the syllabus, and for the most selective courses those questions decide who is interviewed and who is not. This guide sets out what the UK’s leading universities ask for beyond grades, drawing on their own admissions pages, and then shows how a Signature Project meets each expectation.
From 2026 entry the UCAS personal statement is three questions. The third asks: “What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?” It is answered by every applicant to every UK course, with at least 350 characters. Individual universities have published their own advice on it. Warwick asks how experiences outside school link to the chosen degree. Loughborough says to keep linking back to the course. Exeter asks for activities or personal experiences outside the classroom that make the student suited to the course. Bristol says to focus on the impact of the experience. Bath says to explain what was learned, not just what was done. York says to tell them what you have done as well as what you have learnt.
Read together, the advice is consistent: an experience, linked to the course, with its impact explained.
The most selective universities draw a line between activities that go beyond the syllabus in the subject (super-curricular) and activities that are simply outside school (extra-curricular). Oxford suggests that “around 80%” of the statement should be about academic interests, abilities and achievements, and says extra-curricular activities help “only in so far as they demonstrate the selection criteria for your course”. Cambridge tells applicants to explore their subject beyond what they have learnt at school. LSE, which does not interview, asks for the great majority of the statement to show critical engagement with the subject and super-curricular activity. UCL asks for most of the statement to be about the subject. Durham looks for independent thought, critical analysis and wider reading.
The practical meaning is that a project counts to these universities when it is an extension of the subject: a student applying for engineering who built and tested a device, a student applying for economics who ran a venture and kept the accounts.
Oxford asks applicants for many courses to submit written work, up to 2,000 words, and allows an extract of an extended essay. Cambridge’s interviews re-read the personal statement and any written work and probe the applicant’s thinking. York’s interviews ask about project management. Warwick, UCL, King’s, Lancaster and Sheffield interview or set tasks for some courses. What all of these have in common is that the student must talk, in detail and under questioning, about something they have done. A project the student ran themselves gives them that material; a list of activities does not.
Seven of the twenty universities ranked highest by the Complete University Guide make alternative offers for the EPQ: Bath, Lancaster, Exeter, Birmingham, Southampton, and on some courses Leeds and York. The typical form is one grade lower on the A-level offer in exchange for a good EPQ grade. The others value it without lowering the offer, or do not consider it. The EPQ is supervised and assessed by the student’s school, so it is only available where the school offers it, mostly A-level schools rather than IB. A Signature Project is not an EPQ and does not claim to be one. Where a school offers the EPQ, a project a student has already run can be a strong basis for it, subject to the school’s and the exam board’s rules.
Against question 3: the student finishes with a completed project, tested with real people, and a record of what happened and what changed. That is an experience with its impact explained, in the student’s own evidence.
Against super-curricular: the Project Finder and the mentor steer the project towards the subject the student wants to study, so the project is an extension of the course, not a diversion from it.
Against written work and interviews: the student has presented the project live at the Showcase, taken questions, and holds a portfolio with the problem, the evidence and the reflection. They have already been asked the hard questions once.
Against the EPQ: the project is finished before the EPQ year would begin, and can inform one where the school offers it.
None of this replaces the grades or changes an offer. It gives the student something real and their own to put in the place where every UK application now asks for it.
Year 11 (or the year before the final two): choose and run a project, ideally in a term without public exams. Finish it. Keep the evidence.
Year 12: write it up in one page. Decide the course. If the project connects to the course, extend it or run a second, deeper one. If the school offers the EPQ, consider whether the project can be its basis.
Year 13, autumn: write the personal statement with the project as the centre of question 3. Prepare for interviews by rehearsing the project under questioning.
A project started in Year 13 is too late to test and improve before the statement is written; the evidence will be thin.
Every applicant writes it, but some universities and courses use it mainly when many applicants have the same academic scores, as Bristol notes for some of its courses. For the most selective courses it is read closely.
They answer different things. Work experience shows the student has seen the field. A project shows what the student can do in it. For courses that interview, the second gives the student more to say.
Before is fine; many students discover the subject through the project. But the write-up for the application should make the link to the course explicit.
Super-curricular activity goes beyond the syllabus in the subject the student wants to study: reading, projects, competitions, research in that field. Extra-curricular is everything else: sport, music, service. Selective UK universities weight the first far more heavily.
They are welcome in a small part of the personal statement, and they matter for the student. But Oxford says they help only in so far as they show the selection criteria for the course, and most selective universities take a similar view.
Not sure what to build? The CURIOO Project Finder asks a student ten questions and suggests three projects sized for twelve weeks: one practical, one ambitious, one for a cause they care about.
Parents: the Signature Project guide is a five-page PDF you can forward, at curioo.com/signature.
Sources. Quoted from UCAS and each university’s current admissions pages. CURIOO is not affiliated with or endorsed by any university named. Requirements change each year; check the university’s own pages before applying.
