Academic reference instructions for referees

1) General 

Referees will be asked to provide general details, including their name, role, institution, and contact information. The Portal will also ask the nature of your relationship with the applicant, and how long you have known them for. 

2) Academic Ranking

Referees will be asked to rate the applicant within their academic cohort. You will be instructed to:
Select the most appropriate description of the candidate for which you are providing a reference. If you
select the first option "best performance you have known in the last 5 years" it will indicate to the internal
assessors that the candidate is also the "best performer in their year" and "among the top 5%", therefore
only the first option needs to be selected. This also follows for the options below - selecting "best
performance in their year" indicates that they are also "among the top 5%".

This section asks for a description of the size and nature of the cohort against which you are comparing
the applicant’s performance.

For referees who are not able to provide an academic judgement, there will be a section in which you
can further explain the capacity in which you oversaw the applicant’s work.
Referees should then select an option describing the applicant’s potential for originality/creativity/independence of thought in the work they did for you when you taught them.

The final question in this section regards the applicant’s suitability for the course; there will be a text box
for ‘Other’, should their suitability not be covered in the available options.

3) Reference Letter 

Referees must then upload a letter of reference or recommendation in English on a separate sheet of headed paper to the Reference Portal (the details of which will be emailed to you once the applicant has nominated you within the Applicant Portal). This should be in a pdf form and no larger than 2MB. 

Please address references to the ‘Postgraduate Admissions Office’ and make sure you sign
and date the reference.

The Reference Portal will also give referees the option of providing the reference as free text if the pdf upload does not work.

In the reference, please comment on:

• The applicant's academic results to date
• The applicant's academic fitness and general suitability to undertake the proposed course of
  research or study, in relation to the qualification sought
• A justification of any difference between the applicant's academic ranking and your estimate of their suitability for the course
• If the applicant's native language is not English, their level of fluency and proficiency in English,
  particularly in the context of their academic work
• If the applicant is intending to study part-time, their ability to manage different responsibilities
  simultaneously
•  Any other information which you think is relevant to the application (e.g. research experience, ability to work independently, key strengths/weaknesses)

4) Delivery 

References should be submitted using the online Reference Portal. If you are having any technical difficulties with the system, then please contact us by submitting a request.

Should any issues arise, please refer to our Referee FAQs.