Editing Gap year (section)

===United Kingdom===
In the United Kingdom, the practice of taking a gap year – seen as an interim period of 7 or 8 months between completing secondary education and starting university – began to develop in the 1970s. The period was seen as a time for gaining life experience through travel or volunteering. Universities appear to welcome post-gap-year applicants on the same basis as those going straight to university from previous education.{{citation needed|date=July 2017}}

Shorter gap-style experiences (volunteering, expeditions, courses, and work placements) are gaining in popularity, as they can be taken without the need to take a full year out of study or work, due to the recent overhaul of the benefit system as well as the rollout of [[Universal Credit]], which includes tougher conditionality rules resulting into people making limited decisions on the length of gap years due to the emphasis on employment.{{citation needed|date=June 2013}}

A kind of a gap year after university graduation in the UK was short-term voluntary military service as a commissioned officer: ''Short Service Limited Commission'' was introduced at the end of the 1970s when many units were short of young officers. In 1999 the name was changed to ''Gap Year Commission''. It was discontinued in 2007.<ref>[https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmdfence/424/424we20.htm Second Further supplementary memorandum from the Ministry of Defence]</ref>