Providing a reference

On your application form, you will need to provide the contact details of two referees.

One must be an academic reference, the second referee may be another academic referee, or where appropriate/relevant, a professional referee.

All of our academic departments attach considerable importance to the report of the academic referee.

This can play a major part in deciding whether an applicant is called for interview and in determining whether an offer is made.

The assessment of previous academic performance is of particular value, as are indications of the strength of an applicant's motivation to study the chosen subject.

A professional reference can also be of use in establishing an applicant’s postgraduate career development and is a requirement for certain courses which stipulate relevant experience as an entry requirement.

What happens next

When you submit your form, the online application system will send an automatic reference request directly to their professional email accounts so they can submit their recommendation letter quickly and efficiently online.

You can view the status of your reference request in your Imperial Gateway.

If you referee has not submitted their reference and you want to re-send the request, you can do this in your Imperial Gateway account as outlined below:

1. Log into your Imperial Gateway account
2. Scroll down to the My Applications section
3. Click on 'View' under the Track Application heading
4. Click on the Supporting Documents & References heading and scroll down to the Reference Requests section
5. Click on Resend next to the appropriate reference request – this will send your referee the reference request email again

Please note that reference requests can only be resent once every 24 hours.

If you have already resent the request within the last 24 hours, the resend button will not be visible.

Nominating a new referee

If you have been informed that your referee is unable to submit a reference for you, you can also cancel a reference request in the above section and then fill in the details of a new referee.