University of York（约克大学）entry requirements for Chinese students — minimum average mark, university list tiers and programme extras
For the 2025 intake, 约克大学（University of York） asks Chinese applicants for a weighted average of 0.7 if your university appears on its Prestigious list, or 0.75 if it appears on the Non-Prestigious list, for programmes entering at the2:2 degree class. The university reads the weighted average only — not an arithmetic average and not a general average transcript.
That single sentence is where most confusion starts, so here is how the rest of the 2025 rules fit around it.
The degree class, and the two exceptions
Two changes stand out in the 2025 entry requirements. First, programme entry requirements are set at the 2:2 standard across the board, apart from programmes at the medical school with the University of Hull and the joint MSc Sustainable Business, Environment and Society run with Maastricht University. Those two groups sit outside the policy described here.
Second, the language requirements were simplified, and the business subject area dropped its separate6.5 writing component.
Beyond that headline standard, some departments set a subject-level requirement for core courses at the 2:2 level. The published material names computing, economics and music education among them, and says the list is not exhaustive. If your application sits in one of those fields, check the university's own pages, which take precedence.
How the Prestigious and Non-Prestigious tiers work
York's 2025 list is published as a long register in which each Chinese institution is marked either Prestigious or Non-Prestigious, with the corresponding 2:2 threshold attached. The tier label is what sets your number — Prestigious carries 0.7, Non-Prestigious carries 0.75.
For example, one entry in the register is Tsinghua University (清华大学), Beijing, marked Prestigious with a 2:2 figure of 70%. The list runs to many hundreds of entries and is presented as a numbered register by Chinese name, English name and province. We deliberately do not count how many institutions fall in each tier, and we do not reproduce the tier membership here — the register itself, and the university's own pages, which take precedence, are where to confirm your own institution's placement.
Programme-specific extras: portfolio, personal statement, references
The written components are lighter than applicants often expect, but the exceptions are specific.
- Personal statement: not required by any faculty except the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
- Portfolio: some individual programmes in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities ask for one, under the written work requirements published on the site.
- References: not required except for the medical school programmes and Social Work.
- Subject restriction: MA Education accepts applicants with an education background only; Chinese language and literature, linguistics and similar fields are not accepted.
Programme-level additions can also sit on top of the tier number — a portfolio, an interview, or a standardised test such as GMAT. The 2025 material available to us does not set out which individual programmes require an interview or GMAT, so for those check the university's own pages, which take precedence.
Study modes York does not accept
We cannot tell you which study modes are excluded from the 2025 record we hold. Check the university's own pages, which take precedence.
Other qualification routes
If your degree came through a 专升本 route — correspondence or self-study coursework, for example — York sets separate conditions: 75% or above on the 专科 stage, 75–80% on the 本科 stage in line with the table above, plus both the bachelor certificate and graduation transcript scores.
For a Top-up background, the first three years need 75%, or a Pass at HND level, with the bachelor stage reaching 2:2, and a degree certificate from a UK institution is required.
Accepted English language tests, and waivers
Accepted tests are IELTS (Academic and Online), PTE Academic, and TOEFL iBT, including the Special Home Edition. TOEFL MyBest scores are not accepted for meeting the English language requirement.
On waivers, the published position has two limbs: a bachelor's degree from an English-speaking country means you will be cleared of the English requirement, while proof that your degree was taught entirely in English will in most cases secure the same outcome.
What changed for 2025
New taught master's programmes opened for 2025 include MSc Data Science (Scientific), MSc Data Science (Human Behaviour), MSc Data Science (Artificial Intelligence and Statistics), MSc Digital Design, and MSc Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management. Several programmes were also renamed, including MSc Sustainable Business, Environment and Society (previously MSc Sustainable Business: Leadership, Innovation and Management), MA in Women's and Gender Studies (previously MA Women's Studies) and MA Global Culture.
How to check each figure yourself
Every threshold in this article comes from the register and policy text for the 2025 intake. Where the record we hold is silent — study modes, interviews, GMAT per programme — say so and check the university's own pages, which take precedence. For context on where the institution sits, York is ranked 158 in the QS World University Rankings 2027.