What are supercurricular activities – and why do they matter?

Supercurricular activities are academic activities or work undertaken by a student that go beyond the taught curriculum of their school studies. They should not be confused or conflated with the sort of activities that are labelled “extracurricular“ or “co-curricular”. 

Supercurricular engagement is valued by the most academically selective of UK universities, as it demonstrates the extent to which an applicant:

• is interested in the course or subject for which they are applying. 
• has developed the independent academic skills to allow them to thrive at university.
• is taking responsibility for their own learning and development. 

It’s important to remember that applicants to UK universities are applying to specific courses rather than to university more generally, and this puts the focus of the application on academic matters. For universities where applicants often already have very high grades, this allows a point for differentiation. 

Exploring a subject they want to study at university is, ideally, what students should be doing, anyway – if they don’t want to further their knowledge in this way, it may be that studying that course at university is also not something they would enjoy. 

Where and how can a student demonstrate supercurricular work?

A student would usually discuss their supercurricular work in their Ucas personal statement. The personal statement allows students to demonstrate their interest in and suitability for courses in a maximum of 4,000 characters. 

Academic matters – whether supercurricular or related to their current school studies – should take up a total of 80 per cent of the Ucas statement for most universities. In fact, for the most selective institutions, 90 per cent may be recommended. Extracurricular involvement not related to the course the student is applying for should be kept to the remaining 10-20 per cent. 

It can be tricky for us as counsellors to impress the importance of this weighting on our students – many of the young people with whom we work are rightly proud of their involvement in areas such as sport, music and drama, and of holding roles such as school prefect. It’s important to reiterate the purpose of the personal statement and its intended readership: to show academic admissions officers students’ academic ability and engagement. The personal statement is “personal” in the sense that it is individual to each student, not in the sense that it is about personal traits or character development. I often liken it to exam technique and keeping material focused on the question asked – if a history question is about Depression-era America, you wouldn’t write about the Spanish civil war. 

The format of the personal statement is changing slightly for 2026 applications onwards. Rather than the single text box, it will be broken down into three sections to help students structure their points. The overall 4,000 character limit will remain, but with the proviso that each section should contain at least 350 characters. The sections are: 

• Why do you want to study this course or subject?
• How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?
• What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

The Ucas website gives some tips on the types of things that could be covered in each of these sections. Of these, discussing materials or events which have influenced a student could be considered supercurricular matters for question one; supercurricular learning could also feature in section two. 

The guidance for section three focuses on topics that are more commonly considered extracurricular. But some, such as work experience, may also have supercurricular elements, especially if the work experience is directly related to the course – for example, medical, law or engineering experience. 

Supercurricular engagement may also play a part in university interviews. Oxford and Cambridge interview applicants as a key part of the admissions process, and other universities do this for some courses. UK university interviews are academic discussions, and successful students are the ones who are able to think quickly and discuss nuances. Supercurricular knowledge can inform thinking and demonstrate the breadth of students’ knowledge and interest. 

Some universities will also use the personal statement to develop interview questions. Students could be asked to develop the points they have made there – a good reason not to write about something they haven’t read or done.

How can students show supercurricular engagement?

The type of subject a student hopes to study might influence what is readily available, but forms of supercurricular engagement could include:

• Elements of their school curriculum that have allowed for independent research and exploration, such as an extended project qualification or IB extended essay. 
• Additional academic work, such as entering essay competitions run by universities and taking part in events such as science, maths and language Olympiads. The most selective universities often want to know a student’s performance in relation to their cohort or more widely, so a strong performance there can also provide comparative, evidence-based material for the reference. 
• Further reading, whether it is tackling a text beyond the literature curriculum or subscribing to (or making use of school subscriptions) to journal articles. This can be useful for clinical courses as well as science and economics ones. 
• Watching documentaries – good for any subject.
• Listening to podcasts.
• Watching films or listening to news in a foreign language, for aspiring linguists.
• For art and history students, visiting galleries and museums.
• Exploring university-level content by taking a Mooc from an organisation such as Futurelearn, or a taster lecture using Springpod, which is now affiliated to Ucas.
• Work experience directly related to the degree applied for.

Students should select examples relevant to the course they are applying for.

How should students present supercurricular information?

Students need to demonstrate their academic skills, engagement and enthusiasm. The important thing is that they should not just provide a list in the personal statement of anything additional they have done. Rather, they can use the information to:

• Demonstrate how an interest arose after watching, reading or experiencing something. 
• Reflect on and critique how an aspect of something they have learned through their independent work has made them view their current studies – was the latter an inspiration for the former? Did their research change their perspective on anything? Did it make them more aware of the variation within their chosen academic field? How?
• What academic skills did they learn? Analysis, critical reading, referencing? How would it be useful to them at university?

A final tip

Once students have decided on their university choices, check the websites of individual universities for guidance. Students can only add one personal statement to cover all their applications. This makes for a convenient application system, but universities are independent entities. Some may like to see a student mention a couple of items from the first-year reading list as evidence that that course is the first choice. Some do not like a statement to read like an essay; others recommend this. The student may need to balance or slant their approach according to their particular combination of university choices.