Your offer and confirming your place
If your application is successful, you will receive an offer. Your place will be confirmed when you have accepted the place, met the conditions of your offer and supplied any additional information.
Your offer
If you applied using our postgraduate application system and your application is successful you will be able to view the offer in your account.
The type of offer you receive will depend on:
- if you already meet the requirements for your course (unconditional offer)
- if you still have qualifications to complete (conditional offer).
Your offer may be subject to us receiving references or verifying qualifications if these have not been submitted with your application.
If you have applied for a PhD degree for which Academic Technology Approval Scheme (ATAS) clearance is required, we will provide information on how to apply for ATAS clearance with your offer letter.
If you have applied for a medical or health PhD visit for advice about offers.
Providing academic references
You must provide at least two academic references and one of these references must be from your most recent university, the other can be from a employer or colleague.
If we have not received your reference by the time your offer is made, you need to submit your reference before your place can be confirmed.
Changing an academic reference
If you want to change your academic referee, you will need to contact the new referee for a reference. They should email a scanned copy of their reference letter to phd.applicants@sussex.ac.uk.
The letter must be on headed paper or sent to us from an academic or professional email address.
Accepting your offer
You can accept your offer via our postgraduate application system. You can still accept your offer if you:
- have not yet secured funding
- have a conditional offer
- need to pass our English language requirements.
However, you must meet your conditions and be able to cover the fees before you start at Sussex.
Verifying your results
You must provide your official results for the qualifications you declared on your application form. If your official results were not submitted as part of the application, these must be submitted before we can confirm your place.
If you need a visa to study in the UK, you must send us your results before we can issue your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) number.
You need to upload your results to your postgraduate application account.
Meeting the conditions of your offer
You must have met the conditions of your offer before you start at Sussex.
If you have not met the conditions of your offer, we may still be able to confirm your place. Send your results to us as soon as they are available so we can review your application.
Deferring your entry
If you want to defer your entry, you must email a request quoting your name and application number to phd.applicants@sussex.ac.uk.
We need to ensure that your supervisors will still be available before we can confirm your deferral.
If your request is agreed, we confirm the new start date by email. It is only possible to defer your place for up to one year – if you need to defer for longer than one year you must reapply.
If you no longer want to come to Sussex, you must email phd.applicants@sussex.ac.uk quoting your name and application number and we will withdraw your place.