Paying for it · Higher Education Access Route
Gets you into college on fewer points than the person beside you, if your circumstances qualify. Most of the people it was built for never fill in the form.
HEAR offers college places on reduced points, plus support once you are in, to school leavers from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The universities run it through the CAO.
There is a genuine chance you qualify. It is assessed on your household, so you have to apply and show your circumstances rather than assume somebody has noticed them.
This is the most valuable thing on this website. People who would have qualified miss it every single year, and it is almost always one of three reasons: nobody mentioned it, the paperwork looked like a fortnight's work, or they decided in advance that it was meant for somebody worse off than them.
A place at lower points than the published requirement, and support once you are there. Orientation, study help, in some cases money. It is not a lesser degree. Same course, same exams, same degree, and nobody can tell afterwards.
HEAR goes in with your CAO application, and the HEAR closing date lands well before the main one. Supporting documents have their own earlier date again. Miss it and you wait a year. Look up the current dates in the autumn of sixth year, not in the spring when somebody finally mentions it.
Proof of income, evidence of your circumstances. None of it is hard. It's just boring, and boring is what stops people. Start early and put your guidance counsellor to work on it. This is exactly what they are there for and most of them will be glad to be asked.
If it turns out you are not eligible, your ordinary CAO application carries on untouched. There is no version of this where applying makes you worse off.
“It's for people in real hardship, not me.”
It weighs several things together, not just income. Plenty of ordinary working households qualify. Let them decide rather than deciding for them.
“Everyone will know I got in on reduced points.”
They will not. It is not on your degree and nobody in your lectures is told.
“The school handles it.”
You handle it. They help with documents. Nobody does it for you and nobody will chase you.
These pages tell you how it works. A person can tell you what it was actually like. Mentor profiles are open to registered schools.
How schools registerInformation checked September 2026. Requirements, fees and deadlines change — always confirm with the official sources linked above before making a decision.