Referencing or recommending conventions for teachers acting as referees or recommenders.

1. Your references
You are normally required to supply two references. This note gives you
information about how to choose your referee and tips for your referee about how
to give the university and college the information most useful to them in
considering your application.
Who should write the references?
Your referees should know you well enough, in an official capacity, to write about
you and your suitability for postgraduate study. References are usually written by
people who know you academically. Most references will talk about you from a
teacher's or tutor's perspective: how you work and interact with other students and
teachers, for example. You references do not have to be academic, but if you are
studying or have recently left university or college, at least one reference from
your university or college will be expected.
If you are at university of college, or have left recently, you should ask your
lecturer, teacher or tutor.
If you left university or college several years ago you should ask your current or
previous employer (or a senior colleague) or in the case of voluntary work your
supervisor.
If you have recently attended any training courses you should ask your training
provider.
Who should not write the reference?
It is not permitted for family, friends, partners or ex-partners to write your
reference. If we find this to be the case, your application may be cancelled.
You must supply full details of both referees, unless your chosen university or
college has already agreed that no reference is required on your application. See
the advice under "If no reference is needed" below.

2. If you are in prison, your application must include a statement from the prison
authorities, even if you are asking someone else to write your reference, saying
whether you are suitable for a course of postgraduate study, and whether you are
available to accept a place for your chosen year of entry.
Your reference - practical tips
Your referee must write your reference in English (or optionally in Welsh if you
are applying to a Welsh university or college).
In the reference section, enter the following details for each referee.
The referee's name
The referee's relationship to you (for example, lecturer, teacher, tutor,
careers/guidance adviser, employer)
The name of the referee's university, college or other organisation and its website
address
The referee's postal address
The referee's telephone number, including any international and area dialling codes
The referee's email address
It is important that you provide as much information as possible, as we and/or the
university or college may wish to contact your referees for further information
about you before deciding whether to offer you a place.
Enter each reference into the space provided. This can be done in several ways.
The referee will give you the reference, which you can copy and paste into Apply
You can send the reference as an attachment (not exceeding 5mB)
You can give your login details to the referee who can enter the reference into
Apply. Please note that if you choose to do this, they will have access to your
entire application.
The referee can send it by post or email it direct to the university or college, using
the address details shown in the link 'Address details for attachments'.
Any health issues or disabilities can only be mentioned with your permission. If
you have any issues that you would like the university or college to be aware of

3. when considering your application, these should be included in the reference rather
than the personal statement, so discuss this with your referee.
Providing your reference
There is space for 4,000 characters (this includes spaces) or 47 lines of text (this
includes blank lines), whichever comes first, for each of your references. When
you preview or save a pasted-in reference, the system will automatically tell you
how many more characters and lines are still available, or if you have used too
many characters. If your reference will not fit into the box, you must obtain a
shorter version from your referee - do not edit it yourself. You can view the layout
and format of any text you have entered before or after you have saved it.
Unfortunately, bold, italics or underlining cannot be used in the reference. If these
types of formatting are used, they will be removed from the text when your
reference is pasted onto the application and saved.
If you are including your reference in Apply, please make sure that you save your
reference at regular intervals because the application system will time-out after a
period of inactivity.
We will ask you to declare that all the information on your application is true,
complete and accurate. We have the right to cancel applications that are found to
contain any false, misleading or incomplete information. You must not write all or
any part of your reference yourself. You must not edit or change the wording of
your reference.
If no reference is needed
If you do not complete the mandatory referee details and a reference, you will not
be able to send your application to us. You must provide details for a referee and a
reference unless all your chosen universities and colleges have already agreed that
no reference is required on your application.

4. If you have obtained this agreement, please enter "not required" in the fields for
name of referee, post/occupation/relationship, organisation name, address (first two
lines only), telephone and email, and "I have agreed with my choice(s) of
university or college that no reference is required on my application" in the
reference field for each of your references.