Daughter started at a Russell group uni in 2024 and now contacted by UCAS offering her a place at her chosen uni in 2025, which didn’t offer her a place in 2024 but would have been her first choice.

[labsarelife]

Ok, I’ve never heard of this happening before; ever. Daughter gained a place at a Russell group uni in 2024. Had offers for all but one of her choices - the rejection came from her preferred uni but she ended up happily going to her second choice.
We receive a letter this morning - ‘signed for delivery’ from UCAS, offering her a place in 2025 (!) at her first choice uni, from which she was rejected last year.
Apparently, UCAS have ‘undertaken some work’ in conjunction with said uni and are now able to offer her a place - either joining in year 2 or beginning year 1, depending on course content already studied.
Complete dilemma. She is happy (ish) at the current uni - socially etc. Sometimes moans about some of the lectures being useless but to be honest, you get that everywhere and nothing is perfect.
Has on occasion said she’s not sure the uni was all she’d hoped it would be and at one point wanted to leave but has stuck with it; only to now be given the chance to study at her first choice.
Both are top ten unis - or thereabouts, depending on the league tables each year but both consistently good.
My first choice would have been the uni she received a rejection from but we were happy with her second choice and there’s not a huge difference between their stats etc - her first choice was the stronger performing uni of the two.
Location wise, both are in lovely cities.
Has anyone else ever been in this position or heard of anything happening like this before? Perhaps it’s a more common occurrence than I think it is.
Any insight, much appreciated.
Thank you.

My gut feeling is that given the second choice uni is fine in terms of course, location and stats, transferring to the other uni would be a big step as she'd have to establish friendship groups. This would be worse if she goes straight into second year, than starting as a fresher, but another first year would be another year of student finance.

That’s weird isn’t it? And the wording that UCAS gave fine work in conjunction with the uni. It’s so odd.

is it that unis are struggling so much that they are now trying to poach candidates at other unis?

and UCAS us involved. It seems very strange. I guess it’s up to your dd. Is there any rusk she will feel isolated starting in year 2 at a new uni? I know in the US transferring is much more common. If she was desperately unhappy it would be an easy choice.

I don’t think I would suggest she start again in year one unless she is happy to spend an extra year and also take on the extra financial hit. If she wants to and she can’t go into year 2 direct I wood discuss finances with the uni and see if they will give a big reduction in fees or even waive the fees for the repeated year

it makes me think they haven’t had as many high calibre students apply this year. Or why would they be trying to recruit students from elsewhere?

Very odd. I wonder if they had an issue with applications being wrongly handled last year in some way.

Has she booked next year’s accommodation? If it’s a private house/halls she’ll be liable for the full year. Uni accommodation may be more flexible but she’ll have to ask.

Given that’s she almost dropped out at one point it may be worth going to the other one to check it out again and see how she feels.

Are the courses similar? What made her almost drop out, could she do the same if she moved uni?

Tough decision. If my DS was in this situation and expressed the possibility of moving I’d take him for a look, talk to a lecturer if he could, then go from there. Though signed up 2nd accommodation at current uni would be a deal breaker if he could not get out of it.

really odd. you sure it’s not someone playing an unkind prank on her?

Maybe they’ve had a huge dropout rate?!?

I think she’d be better starting in year one. Easier to make friends etc and fit in from the start but also such a risk.

to start year 1 again is a very expensive path - is it worth another year of fees, accom etc

I’d double check it’s not some kind of scam before giving it much more thought.

Yes, she has sorted accommodation and you’re right; it’s a huge issue. I don’t want it to be a deal breaker for her and I want her to have the choice but it would be very difficult for us to manage financially, if we could not secure an alternative tenant.
From what I recall, the courses had some similar content. The preferred uni is stronger in her chosen subject.

What is her view? If she almost dropped out of current uni, would the same apply (ie the same issues with course content or whatever it was) at the new uni?

Are we talking two similar places like Leeds vs Sheffield? Or two very different tho similarly ranked like Bristol vs Durham? I appreciate you may not want to say where but if I’d wanted Durham but was at Bristol I might want to move; between Leeds and Sheffield not so much.

I note you talk in your OP about “my first choice…we were happy” - what did she think?

Quite a few unis are in financial difficulties at the moment, even big name ones. Is it one of those, trying to bolster funding?

Preferred uni seems desperate…and that’s never a good sign. Agree re drop out rate, financial dire straits etc.

Shes already 1/3 through her (I assume) BA. I’d just stay put.

Using the extra year of funding for this would be risky. She may need to use it in future for something else.

Having already secured accommodation and with the above, I'd say stay put.

She is an adult and it’s her decision.

Personally I couldn’t be bothered moving uni after first year. What’s the point? She only has 2 years left.

Lots of large employers don’t even look which uni you’ve been to any more (allegedly discriminatory although I disagree).

That’s so weird.

Personally, I’d stay put and get the degree done at the uni she’s currently at.

Pretty unethical of the original university as well - essentially trying to poach fees from the uni that did take her. It also smacks of desperation on their part because surely they had a big load of new applicants this year - perhaps they are in financial mega shit. I’d ignore the letter and crack on with the degree. Bad, bad form from that uni IMO.

I work at a uni and I’ve never heard of this, although not to say it couldn’t happen…it feels a bit not allowed?

The wording of the letter makes me think that something may have gone wrong last year and she should have received an offer.

I’d suggest giving UCAS a call directly to a) check it’s legit and b) find out a bit more about why they’re offering.

If she swaps I’d say start first year over.

Agree with this. It is VERY VERY VERY peculiar.
Certainly unethical. Possible illegal - CMA regs wouldn’t allow poaching I wouldn’t have thought. I’d question the real reason why. It certainly wouldn’t make me want to accept tbh. If it’s real of course….

What uni is it?

My immediate thought is - is this how desperate some unis are to get bums on seats? However, more sensibly I don't think that UCAS would participate in this kind of poaching exercise. If this is indeed a thing, your daughter won't be the only one receiving offers like this which would make the whole admissions system a joke.

I thought that! Like perhaps an audit of some sort?

We are asking a friend who is a uni lecturer if he’s ever heard of such a thing, as we are flummoxed.
We were really disappointed that she didn’t receive an offer last year, as we thought she stood a really good chance but we just accepted that she hadn’t made the cut and moved on.
I Didn’t think it was a usual occurrence but thought I’d check here, just in case anyone else had experienced it.
I’ll be annoyed if she should have received an offer last year though and something went wrong.
We are receiving an email - as she’s been given a designated person and number to call, which she’s done but they said they would summarise everything in the follow-up email and call her again next Monday!
Something must have been overlooked last year.

Yes, the financial implications too - as it was already a 4 yr course.

No, she has phoned a designated person at UCAS today and has a follow up call next week and an email, summarising everything, due in the next day or so!

I'd stick if I were her.