Clearing
1. You know if you are in clearing through your status on UCAS track. Some of you will be aware of this in advance of results day if you know you are not in receipt of an offer or have rejected your offers.
2. You will need your Clearing number which you will only be able to get if you are not in receipt of any offers. It can be found on the welcome page or choices section of UCAS track.
3. All clearing vacancies will be listed in the search tool on the UCAS page.
4. Please do NOT PANIC, but do your research thoroughly when you see courses/universities that appeal, don’t just pick the first one you see.
5. You will need to contact the university directly if you are interested in a place, you will be asked questions such as:
-Grades
-Personal details (name, address, number, email etc)
-Why you want to do that course
-Why you are interested in that university
Before calling re-read your personal statement and if you are applying for a completely different course, to think about why you want to do that course in particular.
6. Once you been accepted onto a course (this will be verbally by the university) then you need to add the choice on UCAS through the Choices section and ‘add clearing choice’. The university will then formally offer you a place through UCAS in the normal way.
Clearing Plus
(Only helpful if you are looking for a place on the same course you originally applied for).
This is where UCAS have taken what they know about you, and what they know about the types of students unis are looking for, to suggest some courses you might like.
How does it work?
1. Eligible students would be able to ‘view their matches’
2. Matches work by UCAS looking at your original choices you applied for, combined with your qualifications and grades. Universities and colleges have already told UCAS what courses they’d like to make available in Clearing Plus (note, not all courses are included in your matches), and the entry requirements for them. Then, they analyse what students in Clearing went on to study in previous years
3. UCAS then match your profile to a course
4. To see these matches you will see a button in Track, ‘See matches’. Once you hit that you’ll be able to see a full list of your matches.
5. If you express an interest in a course, that university or college can contact you. But remember, courses in Clearing fill up quickly, and you may not always receive a call.
6. We’d therefore recommend you also look for courses in Clearing using the search tool.
7. This should be used in conjunction with Clearing to help speed up the process, not instead of!
Adjustment
Is not happening this year, if you do better than expected and want to look at other university options, you will need to do this through the clearing process as explained above.
Useful links:
https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/results-confirmation-and-clearing/what-clearing
Confirmation and Clearing: The essentials for 2023 | Undergraduate, Conservatoires | UCAS
https://www.ucas.com/file/607846/download?token=PDNRLCTy
Deferred Entry
If you have been accepted onto your course but want to take a deferred entry that you have not previously arranged, you need to contact your university directly.
It is important to note that universities do NOT have to agree to this and therefore if you are adamant you want to wait a year, it may mean you have to reapply next year. You also need to consider WHAT you want to do with your gap year.
