Jurica
Three chapters, built from primary admissions data.
About half of all applications for Law at Bristol receive an offer, but only 37% of Home applications did for 2025 entry. Using Bristol’s replies to Freedom of Information requests, this chapter shows you how many people apply, how that has changed since 2015 and how Bristol decides.
Put what you’ve read into practice with a free diagnostic test and a full LNAT mock exam.
Try Jurica for freeFor 2025 entry, Bristol received 3,350 applications for LLB Law (M100) and made 1,663 offers, so about half of all applications led to an offer. 498 students enrolled.[1] The two groups of applicants fared very differently: 37% of Home applications received an offer, against 80% of overseas applications.[1]
These figures come from Bristol’s reply to a Freedom of Information request in October 2026, which is the newest information Bristol has released. Note that they count applications, not people, and that they leave out Clearing.[1] Bristol’s own published statistics stop at the 2022 cycle and cover all of the Law School’s undergraduate courses together, so in this chapter we use them only for the background of applicants.[2]
This chapter shows you how the numbers have changed since 2015, why overseas applicants receive more offers, how many students start each year and how Bristol makes its decisions. If you want the standard offer straight away, it is A*AA or A*A*B at A-level, and every applicant must sit the LNAT by 13 January 2027.[3][4]
Applications have risen in most years, from 2,363 for 2015 entry to 3,350 for 2025 entry, an increase of 42%. The number of offers has moved much more: it rose to 1,843 for 2020 entry, fell to 1,082 for 2022 entry and was back up to 1,663 for 2025 entry.[5][1]
| Year of entry | Applications | Offers | Offer rate | Home offer rate | Overseas offer rate | Started the course |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2,363 | 1,393 | 59.0% | 57.4% | 62.4% | 366 |
| 2016 | 2,698 | 1,497 | 55.5% | 51.7% | 65.7% | 387 |
| 2017 | 2,803 | 1,386 | 49.4% | 39.8% | 76.4% | 348 |
| 2018 | 2,243 | 1,318 | 58.8% | 53.3% | 73.2% | 368 |
| 2019 | 2,334 | 1,615 | 69.2% | 65.3% | 80.0% | 383 |
| 2020 | 2,550 | 1,843 | 72.3% | 68.7% | 81.8% | 395 |
| 2021 | 2,898 | 1,330 | 45.9% | 37.4% | 69.7% | 412 |
| 2022 | 2,979 | 1,082 | 36.3% | 26.2% | 65.2% | 323 |
| 2023 | 2,985 | 1,102 | 36.9% | 28.8% | 60.9% | 317 |
| 2025 | 3,350 | 1,663 | 49.6% | 37.1% | 79.5% | 498 |
There are three things to notice here:
Note also that the two replies count slightly differently. The figures for 2015 to 2023 divide applicants by applicant category (domicile and visa status) and count only applicants who kept the same course choice, while the figures for 2025 divide them by fee status.[5][1] The differences are small, but we suggest comparing 2025 with earlier years only roughly.
Read these rates as a description of past years. Bristol recommends that you do not use its admission statistics as a guide to whether you might receive an offer.[2] The Home offer rate has been as high as 69% and as low as 26% two years later, so one year’s figure tells you little about the next.[5]
Bristol has not said. What the figures do show is that overseas offer holders are less likely to enrol than Home offer holders, and that Bristol has kept Law open to overseas applicants for longer.[1][7]
For 2025 entry, 293 of the 875 Home offers (33%) led to an enrolment, against 205 of the 788 overseas offers (26%).[1] In other words, Bristol needs to make more offers to overseas applicants for each student who arrives. Many overseas offer holders also miss their conditions: of the 121 who did so for 2025/26, Bristol accepted 56.[8] The next chapter on grades gives these figures for three years.
We think a second factor is the deadline. In both the 2025 and the 2026 cycles Bristol extended its LNAT deadline (to 31 March 2025 and to 30 April 2026), because Law applications remained open to overseas applicants after the January deadline. The 2026 extension was for overseas applicants only.[9][7] For 2027 entry no extension has been announced, and the deadline is 13 January 2027 for everyone.[4]
| Stage (2025 entry) | Home | Overseas | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Applications | 2,359 | 991 | 3,350 |
| Offers | 875 | 788 | 1,663 |
| Contextual offers | 412 | 0 | 412 |
| Enrolments | 293 | 205 | 498 |
| Offer rate | 37.1% | 79.5% | 49.6% |
Bristol did not split the 412 contextual offers by fee status, but contextual offers are only for applicants with Home fee status, so we have put all of them in the Home column.[1][10] That means about 47% of Home offers for 2025 entry were contextual offers. The grades chapter explains who is eligible.
Bristol’s Law School says it admits about 400 students a year, on average 260 Home and 140 international students.[11] On LLB Law (M100) alone, between 317 and 412 students registered in each year from 2015 to 2023, and 498 enrolled for 2025 entry.[5][1]
As you can see, the 2025 intake was the largest in the series. The Home intake (293) was within the range of earlier years (220 to 320), and most of the increase came from overseas students: 205 for 2025 entry, against between 92 and 128 a year from 2015 to 2023.[5][1] Note that the Law School’s figure of about 400 includes students on its other courses, such as Law and Modern Languages (MR20).[11][12]
Bristol scores every application on your GCSEs, your A-levels (achieved or predicted) and your LNAT score, and it decides mainly on that score. It does not normally read your personal statement or reference, and it does not routinely interview.[13]
There are three parts to the score:
For the 2021 to 2025 cycles Bristol published the weights: GCSEs 20%, A-levels 40% and the LNAT 40%.[15] The statements for 2026 and 2027 give no percentages, and Bristol has not said whether the weights have changed.[13] Mature applicants with old or non-standard qualifications may be interviewed; nobody else normally is.[11][13]
In general, this means that your grades and your LNAT score decide your application, and that there is no stage at which you can make up for them in person. Note also that meeting the entry requirements does not guarantee an offer, since the number of offers depends on the course, the year and the applicant’s fee status.[14]
The only breakdown by background is in Bristol’s published statistics, which stop at the 2022 cycle and cover every undergraduate course in the Law School together. They show that about two in three applications came from women, that state-school applicants received offers at a lower rate than independent-school applicants, and that about a third of Home applications came from the areas where most young people go on to higher education.[2]
Every count below is rounded to the nearest 5, so a small figure such as 15 may be anything from 13 to 17. Home and Overseas are defined by domicile and visa status.[2]
| School type (2022) | Applications | Offers | Accepted | Offer rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State school | 1,860 | 515 | 210 | 27.7% |
| Independent school | 355 | 150 | 55 | 42.3% |
| Other or unknown | 1,025 | 585 | 185 | 57.1% |
Independent-school applicants received offers at a higher rate than state-school applicants: 42% against 28% with Home and overseas applicants counted together, and 39% against 27% among Home applicants alone. The "other or unknown" group covers other types of school, schools outside the UK and applicants with no school recorded. 79% of its applications (805 of 1,025) came from overseas, which is why its offer rate is the highest. Among Home applicants who accepted a place, 74% (200 of 270) came from state schools.[2] Bristol does not say how much of the gap comes from GCSE and A-level scores, which make up most of its scoring.
| Ethnicity (2022) | Applications | Offers | Accepted | Offer rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | 1,485 | 425 | 200 | 28.6% |
| Asian | 350 | 165 | 95 | 47.1% |
| Black | 190 | 55 | 15 | 28.9% |
| Mixed | 190 | 60 | 30 | 31.6% |
| Other | 90 | 45 | 30 | 50.0% |
| Unknown | 930 | 505 | 80 | 54.3% |
This table counts Home and overseas applicants together, which raises the Asian, Other and Unknown rates. Among Home applicants alone the offer rates were similar: White 28.1%, Asian 30.8%, Black 27.8% and Mixed 29.7%.[2] The difference shows at the next stage. 15 of the 55 offers to Black applicants (27%) led to an accepted place, against 200 of the 425 offers to White applicants (47%); since 15 is a rounded figure, the 27% is approximate.[2] Bristol publishes the numbers but not the reasons behind them.
POLAR3 groups home postcodes by how many young people from the area go on to higher education, from quintile 1 (the fewest) to quintile 5 (the most). It is reported for Home applicants only. 805 of the 2,360 Home applications in 2022 (34%) came from quintile 5, against 210 (9%) from quintile 1; 185 had no quintile recorded and are left out of the table.[2]
| POLAR3 quintile (2022) | Applications | Offers | Accepted | Offer rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quintile 1 | 210 | 50 | 20 | 23.8% |
| Quintile 2 | 285 | 80 | 30 | 28.1% |
| Quintile 3 | 385 | 110 | 45 | 28.6% |
| Quintile 4 | 490 | 120 | 50 | 24.5% |
| Quintile 5 | 805 | 255 | 110 | 31.7% |
Note that POLAR is no longer one of Bristol’s contextual criteria. For 2027 entry Bristol uses the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) instead, so these quintiles do not tell you whether you would be eligible for a contextual offer now.[10][6]
| Sex (2022) | Applications | Offers | Accepted | Offer rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Female | 2,210 | 885 | 315 | 40.0% |
| Male | 1,025 | 370 | 145 | 36.1% |
68% of applications (2,210 of 3,235) came from women, and the difference in offer rates was small: 40% for women and 36% for men, or 28.8% and 26.3% among Home applicants alone.[2]
Very little so far. Bristol does not release figures for a cycle until it has finished: when it was asked in August 2024, it withheld that year’s figures under section 43 of the Freedom of Information Act, on the grounds that they could help competing universities, and said they would be available from December.[5]
What we do know is that in the 2026 cycle Bristol again kept Law open to overseas applicants after the January deadline, and extended their LNAT deadline from 14 January to 30 April 2026.[7] For 2027 entry, the LNAT and UCAS deadlines are both 13 January 2027, and Bristol’s admissions statement describes the LNAT deadline as final.[4][16][13] We will add the figures for 2026 entry when Bristol releases them.
Every numerical claim above ends in a [n] superscript that links here. Click any link to open the source from which the figure was retrieved.
Reply to Faatihah Ogunfemi’s request of 21 September 2026, with the spreadsheet "FOI2627 173 Response Data.xlsx". Honours Law (LLB), the 2025 admissions cycle (2025 entry), Clearing excluded and deferred applications included. By fee status: Home 2,359 applications, 875 offers and 293 enrolments; Overseas 991, 788 and 205; total 3,350, 1,663 and 498. 1,187 applications were eligible for a contextual offer; 412 contextual offers were made and 143 students enrolled with one. 128 enrolments were accepted below the terms of their offer (74 on a standard offer, 54 on a contextual offer). Predicted best three A-levels of offer holders (A*A*A* 282, A*A*A 200, A*AA 180, AAA 49, AAB 27, ABB 22, A*AB 11, BBB 7, A*A*B 6) and achieved best three of enrolments, split by contextual offer. Section A (out of 42) of offer holders: standard offers average 24 and lowest 7; contextual offers average 23 and lowest 9. Counts below 5 are withheld.
Bristol’s admissions statistics for the 2018 to 2022 cycles (undergraduate data as at 1 December 2022), with CSV files by applicant category, school type, ethnicity, gender, POLAR3 quintile, disability and age. The figures are for every undergraduate course in the Law School together, not M100 alone; they count applications, not applicants; and they are rounded to the nearest 5. 2022: 3,235 applications, 1,255 offers, 255 contextual offers, 460 accepted and 405 registered. Bristol recommends that the statistics are not used as a guide to whether you might receive an offer. No later edition has been published.
Course page for 2027 entry (UCAS code M100, three years). A-level standard offer A*AA or A*A*B; contextual offer AAB. IB 38 points with 18 at Higher Level (contextual 34 with 17). Scottish: Advanced Higher AA and Higher AAAAA. BTEC D*DD. Access to HE: 45 graded level 3 credits with at least 30 at Distinction and 15 at Merit or above. The Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Skills can replace a non-subject-specific grade. GCSE: no specific subjects required; GCSE English Language at grade B or 6 is one way for applicants whose first language is not English to meet the language requirement. The LNAT is required. Fees for the first year: £10,050 (Home) and £26,500 (international).
All undergraduate law applicants must take the LNAT. For the 2027 application cycle the deadline is 13 January 2027, and tests taken later are disregarded. Only an LNAT taken in the current cycle counts. Bristol recommends taking the test at the earliest possible date, and says it may grant extensions in exceptional circumstances.
Reply to R Simmons’s request of 27 August 2024. Honours Law (LLB) only, Home and Overseas by applicant category (which is not the same as fee status), for the admissions cycles 2015 to 2023, named by year of entry. Applications rose from 2,363 (2015) to 2,985 (2023); offers were 1,843 in 2020 and 1,082 in 2022; registrations were between 317 and 412. Clearing, alternative offers and course changes are not counted. Figures for the 2024 cycle were withheld under section 43 while the cycle was running.
Notes on the statistics. University-wide, about 45% of Home conditional firm offer holders met the terms of their offer in the 2019 cycle and about 74% in the 2021 cycle, which led to a larger student body in 2021/22. The contextual offer scheme began in 2009 and its criteria have been revised several times.
The page as it stood in May 2026: the deadline for the 2026 cycle was 14 January 2026, extended to 30 April 2026 (or the closure of the course, if earlier) for overseas applicants only, because Law applications remained open to them.
Reply to a request of 29 April 2026, with the spreadsheet "FOI2526 442 Response Data.xlsx". LLB Law (M100) applicants with overseas fee status, by academic year of entry (deferred applications included). Conditional offers 432, 512 and 642 for 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26; firm responses 227, 250 and 310; offer holders who missed their conditions and were not accepted 42, 69 and 65; who missed them and were accepted 31, 33 and 56. Also the achieved A-levels and Section A scores of those who missed their conditions; in 2025/26 accepted applicants who had missed their conditions scored from 9 upwards, and the largest groups scored 19 (5), 20 (10) and 21 (6).
The page as it stood in June 2025: the deadline for the 2025 cycle was 29 January 2025, extended to 31 March 2025 (or the closure of the course, if earlier) while Law applications remained open to overseas applicants.
The five criteria for 2027 entry: an aspiring state school or college; a home postcode in IMD quintile 1 or 2; completing a Bristol widening-participation programme; three months or more in local authority care; eligibility for free school meals during secondary education. Contextual offers are only for applicants with home fee status who are taking A-levels or the IB and apply through UCAS, and eligibility is taken from the UCAS form. Bristol Scholars receive a tailored offer instead.
About 400 students are admitted each year, on average 260 Home and 140 international and EU. Typical offer A*AA or A*A*B, contextual AAB. No specific A-level subjects are required; Bristol looks at the best three A-levels and eight best GCSEs and does not accept General Studies or the EPQ. All applicants take the LNAT. Answering over 50% of Section A correctly counts as doing well. The essay is marked by members of staff. There is no minimum LNAT score: your score is compared with those of other applicants in your year, and a poor result may lead to an unsuccessful application. The LNAT cannot be resat in the same year. Mature students with old or non-standard qualifications may be interviewed.
Four-year degree with French, German or Spanish. A*AA or A*A*B including B in the language (contextual AAB including B in the language). Applicants must sit the LNAT.
Version 1.0 of 14 May 2026, for M100 and MR20 (and two courses entered by transfer). All applicants must take the LNAT. Bristol takes into account GCSE results, achieved or predicted A-level results and the LNAT score, and applications are primarily assessed on scores based on GCSE and A-level results. The essay is read and assessed by Bristol staff, who look for the ability to make and sustain a persuasive argument and a strong command of language. The personal statement and reference are not normally considered, but may be used if many applicants have the same academic score. No routine interviews. Contextual offers are usually two grades lower. Near misses are reviewed in August. The January LNAT deadline is described as final.
University-wide policy for the 2027/28 cycle. Applications are scored on the three best A-levels and the eight best GCSEs; meeting the entry requirements does not guarantee an offer; contextual information is taken into account when assessing attainment and when deciding whether to make an offer, and may also be considered for offer holders who miss their offer; a guaranteed offer is made at the published offer level.
The last statement to publish a weighting: applications were scored and ranked with GCSEs at 20%, A-levels at 40% and the LNAT at 40%. The same sentence is in the 2021 to 2024 statements; the 2026 and 2027 statements give no percentages. Internet Archive copy captured 25 June 2025.
For 2027 entry the equal consideration date for most undergraduate courses is 13 January 2027 at 18:00 UK time.
How the numbers have changed, who applies, and the LNAT.
Applications rose from 2,363 to 3,350 between 2015 and 2025 entry, and the Home offer rate ranged from 26% to 69%.
View the trend →School type, ethnicity, POLAR3 and sex in Bristol’s statistics for 2022.
View the background →Offer holders averaged 24 on Section A for 2025 entry. How Bristol uses the score and the essay.
Open LNAT page →The A*AA or A*A*B offer, what offer holders were predicted, GCSEs and the contextual offer.
Open grades page →