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Postgraduate

How to apply

You can apply online for all our taught programmes. This page takes you through the process, and outlines the information and documents you will need.

1. View our postgraduate coursefinder

Our postgraduate coursefinder contains all the information you need, including programme information, fees, entry requirements and applications links. Please contact us if you have any questions about a course you are interested in.

You may apply for a maximum of two taught programmes or one taught and one research programme at Queen Mary per application cycle. 

Please note that you can only study for one qualification at a time, so if you receive offers for both programmes you will be required to accept one and decline the other.

2. Complete the correct online application form

Click on the "Apply now" button on the relevant coursefinder page.

International applicants are welcome to contact one of our authorised local representatives for assistance with making an application. They will guide you through the application process and can upload documents online. They do not charge for their services. You can find details of in-country representatives on your country page.

3. Supporting documentation

You will need to provide the following documentation as part of your application. This list of documents may vary slightly from course to course.

  • Completed application form
  • Academic qualifications

Please provide a transcript for your degree study. If you have not yet completed your degree please provide a transcript of your results achieved to date. If you have completed more than one university qualification, please provide a transcript and certificate for both.

  • If your degree was awarded by a UK university, please upload a transcript of your marks for each year. If your institution issues electronic Higher Education Achievement Reports (e-HEARS), or similar, you must provide a copy of the e-HEAR. No other documentation will be accepted.
  • If your degree was awarded by an overseas institution, you should supply a transcript of your marks for each year of your studies and a copy of your degree certificate together with a certified translation if the document is not in English. Please note that original documentation will be required before you enrol. International and EU applicants are also advised to include high school transcripts. We accept copies of physical transcripts and degree certificates as well as electronic transcripts and certificates.

Verification of qualifications

In order to confirm your offer, we will need to confirm the authenticity of the documents you supply during the application process.

If you are submitting electronic transcripts, we normally use the  an online verification services offered by many universities. If your previous university has an online verification service, please grant QMUL access to this.

Please note that we can't accept digital or electronic certificates/transcripts if your university doesn’t have an online verification service. If we are unable to verify your electronic certificate or transcripts online, our admissions team will liaise with you on additional ways it may be possible to verify your documentation.

If your university doesn't have an online verification service, If you are submitting copies of physical documents, you should upload to your application clear, colour photographs or scans of your original qualification documents (not copies or certified copies). These documents must:

  • Confirm that the qualification has been awarded
  • Show the date of the award
  • Show the final awarded grade
  • Referee details. Please provide the contact details of one or two referees on your application as required. You should provide details of an academic referee if you are currently studying, or if you have graduated within the last five years. Professional references may be considered if you have graduated more than five years ago.
    • Your academic referee(s) may already have provided you with a reference that you can use to support any application for study or research that you make. We call these ‘open’ references. Open references will normally only be accepted if they are written on headed paper, provided as a colour copy of the original, and provide the referee’s work contact details.
    •  If you have open references, please upload these at the time of application If you do not have open reference, we will contact your referee(s) via email to supply a reference, preferably electronically. Please note, we can only accept a reference provided by email if it is sent from a university or company email address. References from a personal email address such as 'Yahoo' or 'Hotmail' are not acceptable.
    •  Your referee(s) can also supply a paper reference in response to the reference request email your referee will receive. Paper reference forms should be endorsed by an appropriate institution/company stamp or on official institution/company letterhead, and should be provided as a scanned colour copy of the original.
  • Statement of purpose. Your statement of purpose should explain why you want to study your chosen programme and how it will help your future career aspirations. This should typically be one side of A4 paper.
  • Curriculum Vitae (CV)/Resume
  • English language certificate (if applicable). If English is not your first language, you should provide evidence of English language ability: IELTS, TOEFL, or other acceptable proof. Please see the English Language Requirements section for more details.

4. Submit your application

We encourage you to submit your application early, as some programmes may become full and we will no longer be able to consider applications. You can check our key dates and deadlines, but we will also update the relevant course page in this instance. Students seeking financial support from Research Councils or other award giving bodies are advised to apply early.

Once you have submitted your application, you will have access to the MySIS applicant portal, where you can upload any further documents and contact the Postgraduate Admissions team if you have any queries about your application.

Find out more about what happens after you apply.

Terms and Conditions

General terms and conditions for prospective students

In accordance with UK government consumer law advice for providers and students Queen Mary publishes general terms and conditions for prospective students. When we make offers of admission, they are subject to the relevant terms and conditions.

Our terms and conditions can be found here.

Admissions Policies and Procedures

Our admissions policies and procedures can be found on our dedicated webpages.

Contract with Queen Mary University of London

The acceptance of your postgraduate offer marks the beginning of a contract between you and Queen Mary University of London.

Extenuating circumstances during the admission process

At Queen Mary, we do not consider extenuating circumstances in assessing academic qualifications for entry onto our programmes. We appreciate there may be circumstances, outside an applicant’s control, that they feel may have impaired their assessment performance and ability to meet our minimum academic entry requirements and, in these instances, we advise applicants raise this with their previous school/institution or examination board so that they can factor it in when awarding grades.  

Our entry requirements clearly state the minimum academic grade applicants need to attain, as well as required or cognate subjects needed, where applicable. In circumstances where an applicant has not attained the minimum required grade for entry, due to extenuating circumstances, we will have expected applicants to have notified their school, university or examination board and outlined the circumstances that have impacted their learning. Where applicable, we would expect this to be considered in the final examinations or assessments and reflected in the final grades awarded. Queen Mary will therefore not further consider these circumstances as part of its decision making.

Education providers and examination bodies can provide reasonable adjustments for disabilities or long-term conditions (including specific learning differences and mental health diagnoses) that may affect students during their studies or examinations and we would expect that adequate and appropriate measures would have been put in place. Circumstances like this would not be considered as extenuating circumstances. 

Queen Mary’s mission is to create a truly inclusive environment where we support talented students regardless of their background or personal experience, please be aware that extenuating circumstances are separate to our Contextual Admissions criteria and guidance

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

No, the university does not charge an application fee.

Information on the comparability of international qualifications can be found in the Entry Requirements section under the listings for each programme in the course finder.

Alternatively, we use Ecctis to check the equivalency of international and European qualifications.

For more information on the eligibility of your qualification, please contact Postgraduate Admissions

You may be able to transfer credit from previous study into a postgraduate degree at Queen Mary where this is relevant to your chosen course and at the relevant academic level. You can find further details in our Accreditation of Prior Learning Policy. For further advice please e-mail Postgraduate Admissions, providing details about your previous study and a transcript confirming award of the credits.  

You can still apply even if you haven't yet received your final transcript or your Certificate of English proficiency. You will receive a conditional offer which will state what qualifications and grades you will need to achieve in order to meet our entry requirements. Once you have received evidence of obtaining your qualifications you can upload them to our MySIS Applicant portal after which you will receive an unconditional offer once all conditions have been met.
Some postgraduate programmes may require applicants to have submitted their Reference letters before a decision has been made.

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