UCAS to higher education. Personal statements can contain a maximum of 4,000 characters (including spaces) or 47 lines – whichever comes first, with a maximum of 94 characters per line. A research study conducted by UCAS with over 300,000 personal statements of students revealed that the personal statement (among the student's grades) is the most important part within the application process. The final part of the process involves paying an application fee and obtaining a written reference. The process varies depending on whether a student is applying through a school, college or UCAS centre or as an individual. For the former,
Bachelor's degree sciences, or have more specific titles such as BEng. As in the rest of the UK, integrated master's degrees, taking five years in Scotland, are also offered as first degrees alongside bachelor's degrees. An honours degree may be directly linked to professional or vocational qualifications, particularly in fields such as engineering, surveying and architecture. These courses tend to have highly specified curricula, leaving students without many options for broader study. Others, following a more traditional route, start off with a broad range of studies across the faculty that has admitted the student or, via modular study, across the whole university.