Do you know any students who are, or will be soon, preparing a UCAS Personal Statement to accompany an application for a university placement?

Applications for a university place in 2026 require a Personal Statement in a revised format.  Within a total of 4,000 characters, three questions have to be answered: 

1. Why do you want to cover this course or subject?

2. How have your qualifications or studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

3. What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful? 

Thanks to AI, that should be a piece of cake, shouldn’t it?  Unfortunately, not: “Generating (and then copying, pasting and submitting) all or a large part of your personal statement from an AI tool such as ChatGPT, and presenting it as your own words, could be considered cheating by universities and colleges and could affect your chances of an offer.” 

Like most documents drafted these days, AI offers a good starting point but work is still needed on getting the draft perfected. Students, like the rest of us, need to take care that their masterpieces are ‘fit for purpose’!

I do NOT write material for students but, if appropriate, I will proofread and/or light edit documents for them. What's more, I offer students a 12.5% discount! See simplywords.co.uk/students-charities/.