The short answer
The University of York's 2025 entry standard for applicants holding a Chinese bachelor's degree is set as a weighted average, not an arithmetic average and not a transcript "average" certificate. For a 2:2 degree classification, the published thresholds are 0.7 (70%) if your university sits in the Prestigious group, and 0.75 (75%) if it sits in the Non-Prestigious group.
These two figures are the whole of the headline policy. Everything else on this page is a condition attached to them.
The one rule that catches most applicants out
The University looks only at the weighted average. If your certificate or transcript also shows an arithmetic mean, that figure is not the one used.
So before anything else, pull out the weighted average from your own transcript. If you cannot find it, ask your registrar for a weighted-average statement rather than re-sending a general transcript.
Prestigious or Non-Prestigious
The University publishes the tier words itself and assigns each institution to one of them. Use those words exactly as published — do not substitute your own ranking intuition for the tier.
| University tier (University of York's own wording) | Weighted average needed for a 2:2 course | Equivalent percentage shown in the list |
|---|---|---|
| Prestigious | 0.7 | 70% |
| Non-Prestigious | 0.75 | 75% |
The published list is long — 1,600 rows in the version this summary is drawn from, split between 836 entries at 70% and 764 at 75%. Find your own institution in it rather than inferring your tier from a university group or a league table you have seen elsewhere.
Note what the tier does not mean. It is a conversion rule for a single qualification. It is not a ranking of Chinese universities, and it says nothing about whether you will be offered a place.
Which courses this does not apply to
The 2:2 standard applies across most taught postgraduate courses, with two explicit exceptions:
- Applications to the Hull York Medical School (约克赫尔医学院).
- The joint programme with Maastricht University, MSc Sustainable Business, Environment and Society.
Both exceptions need to be checked directly on the course page rather than assumed from the general policy.
Courses that set their own bar
Some faculties and courses set additional score requirements in core subject areas. The published examples include the School of Computer Science, the Department of Economics, and music education-related programmes.
There is also a subject restriction worth noting early: MA Education accepts applicants from an education background only. Chinese and other language or linguistics backgrounds are not accepted.
These are the cases where a general policy number is not the number that decides your application. Check the individual course entry before you build a shortlist around it.
What else goes into the application
The pattern across taught postgraduate courses for 2025 is lighter than applicants often expect:
- Personal statement. Not required by any faculty except the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
- Portfolio. Required only for certain programmes in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Details are on the Written Work pages.
- References. Not required, except for Hull York Medical School programmes and Social Work.
If you were planning to write a personal statement for a business or computing programme, you can skip that step.
English language
Accepted tests are IELTS Academic (including the online version), PTE Academic, and TOEFL iBT — including the Special Home Edition. TOEFL MyBest is not accepted for meeting the English language requirement.
One 2025 change is worth planning around: business courses no longer carry a separate IELTS writing sub-score requirement.
Language requirements may be waived in two situations:
- You hold a bachelor's degree from an English-speaking country — the waiver is certain.
- You can show that your degree was taught entirely in English — the waiver is likely.
A waiver route is not the same as a published test score, so do not plan around one unless the University confirms it for you.
Applicants without a standard Chinese bachelor's degree
If your qualification came through a part-time, correspondence or self-study route, the published conditions are:
- The专升本 stage at 75% or above.
- The bachelor's stage at 75–80%.
- Both the bachelor's certificate and the graduation thesis grade.
For Top-up applicants:
- The first three years at 75%, or an HND at Pass, plus a bachelor's stage at 2:2.
- A degree-awarding qualification from a UK institution.
How to self-check before you apply
Work through this in order. Each step is one action.
- Find your weighted average on your transcript.
- Locate your university in the University of York tier list and note the figure beside it.
- Compare that figure with 0.7 or 0.75.
- Open the entry requirements for each course you are considering.
- Note any faculty-level or core-subject score condition.
- Confirm whether the course is one of the two exceptions.
- Confirm whether a personal statement, portfolio or references apply to it.
- Check the English requirement and whether your qualification qualifies for a waiver.
If step 2 leaves you unsure, treat the course page as the deciding source rather than the tier list.