Access to Bristol
Access to Bristol provides local students with an unprecedented opportunity to experience life at the University of Bristol.
If you are interested in taking part in Access to Bristol/Pathways to Health Sciences 2022-23, sign up to receive an email notification when applications open in September 2022.
The Access to Bristol scheme is for local students taking A-levels, BTECs, Access to HE courses or equivalents. Taking part shows a commitment to further study that will strengthen your application when you apply to university. On completion, you will be guaranteed a contextual offer/interview from Bristol, a top ten UK university (QS World University Rankings 2023).
Students attend a series of sessions, held at the University on Wednesday afternoons during the autumn or spring term. You will choose to study one subject stream from a selection, representing many of the degree subjects available at Bristol.
You will get an idea of what it is like to study at the University of Bristol, working with academics and current students who can offer advice and guidance about higher education and their subject area.
Term dates & times
The scheme is split into Autumn and Spring term and students attend one term only. Autumn sessions runs from Nov-Dec and Spring sessions run from Feb-Mar.
Autumn Term (Year 13 & Access to HE students priority)
Pending COVID-19 restrictions, we are planning to run Access to Bristol from 2-4pm on campus on the following dates:
- Wednesday 03 November 2021
- Wednesday 10 November 2021
- Wednesday 17 November 2021
- Wednesday 24 November 2021
- Wednesday 01 December 2021
- Wednesday 08 December 2021
Spring Term (Year 12 students only)
Pending COVID-19 restrictions, we are planning to run Access to Bristol from 2-4pm on campus on the following dates:
- Wednesday 02 February 2022
- Wednesday 09 February 2022
- Wednesday 16 February 2022
- Wednesday 02 March 2022
- Wednesday 09 March 2022
- Wednesday 16 March 2022
Subjects we offer on Access to Bristol
You can view a simple list of the subjects we offer and the term(s) they run in these drop-downs. For more in depth information on our subject stream content and Access to Bristol more broadly, please see our Access to Bristol 2021-22 booklet below.
Arts & Humanities
Our Arts & Humanities subject stream offering is:
- English Literature (Autumn & Spring)
- Film & TV (Autumn)
- History (Spring)
- Modern Languages (Spring)
Read more about our Arts Faculty here.
Engineering & Computer Science
Our Engineering courses are combined into one exciting stream that runs in Autumn and Spring. As Engineering is such a broad subject, we do our best to showcase the different types of Engineering on offer at Bristol during your time on Access to Bristol.
Read more about our Engineering Faculty here.
Life Sciences
Our Life Sciences subject stream offering is:
- Biological Sciences (Autumn)
- Biomedical Sciences (Autumn & Spring)
- Psychology (Autumn & Spring)
Read more about our Life Sciences Faculty here.
Science
Our Science subject stream offering is:
- Chemistry (Spring)
- Earth & Environmental Sciences (Spring)
- Geography (Autumn)
- Mathematics (Autumn)
- Physics (Spring)
Read more about our Science Faculty here.
Social Sciences & Law
Our Social Sciences & Law subject stream offering is:
- Business Management (Spring)
- Childhood & Education Studies (Autumn)
- Economics (Autumn)
- Law (Autumn & Spring)
- Social Sciences: Sociology, Politics, Criminology & Social Policy (Spring)
Read more about our Social Sciences & Law Faculty here.
Access to Bristol Booklet
Benefits of Access to Bristol
Students who complete the Access to Bristol scheme can benefit from:
- The Access to Bristol bursary
- A guaranteed contextual offer/interview
Access to Bristol bursary
If you successfully complete the Access to Bristol scheme and choose Bristol as your Firm choice in UCAS you may be eligible for the Access to Bristol bursary, which currently consists of a maintenance bursary of £3,855 for each year of your course.
To be considered for the bursary you need to be Firm with Bristol, a Home UK student and have a household income of £25,000 or below. No bursary is paid in any year where you are entitled to NHS funding as part of your course.
Guaranteed offer at contextual level
A-Level/BTEC Access to Bristol 'completers'
For most courses, you will be guaranteed an offer at the contextual level, provided that you meet the full entry requirements of the course applied for. Students undertaking the appropriate subjects but not predicted the contextual offer will usually be made an aspirational offer.
If the course holds interviews as part of the selection process you will be guaranteed an interview (for example, Medicine or Dentistry). The interview will only be guaranteed if your predicted grades meet the contextual entry requirements and you meet the GCSE subject requirements.
Please note: we do not currently have BTEC contextualised offers. This means that your BTEC subject(s) offer will not be made any lower than stated on course pages.
Access to HE Access to Bristol 'completers'
For most courses, you will be guaranteed an offer to study, providing full entry requirements are met.
For a small number of Science Faculty courses, as well as Medicine/Dentistry or other interviewing subjects, Access to HE students will be guaranteed an interview. These courses often interview to ensure that Access to HE students have the required grounding in Mathematics and/or Physics.
Please note: the Access to HE qualification is already at the contextual level, in recognition that students returning to study may face additional barriers to entering HE. This means that your offer will not be made any lower than stated.
Pathways to Health Sciences
If you are a Year 12 or Access to HE student interested in studying Medicine, Dentistry or Veterinary Science, you may be interested in our Pathways to Health Sciences programme.
Virtual resources for school and college students
Sign up for exclusive access to our virtual resources, to support your home-learning and super-curricular development.
Contact us
If you have any questions about Access to Bristol, or if you need any assistance with the application form, please get in touch with Zaynab Hamdi (Access to Bristol Coordinator) at access-to-bristol@bristol.ac.uk.
If your query relates to our Pathways to Health Sciences scheme, please get in touch with Kath Bourne (Pathways to Health Sciences Coordinator) at pathways-to-health-sciences@bristol.ac.uk.