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.

I think she’d need to think carefully about whether it was worth taking on the extra debt

Apparently, my daughter has told me there are costs willing to be covered. I’m going to have to speak to UCAS today.
I feel sorry for her, as she said to me this morning, that someone else is there in HER place and she is of course, right.
I’ve told her to stay if she’s happy but if she isn’t truly happy, now is the time to admit it and speak up.
Honestly, she has never truly settled there and I know that from the ‘little things’ she does and does not say.
Who is to say, it couldn’t be worse elsewhere though? Socially, she’d be fine. There are no issues with that as she’s an easygoing and genuinely lovely girl but her main complaint has been the course itself, when we really think about it.
There are also aspects of the course, that would have suited her better at her first choice - it’s less research intensive, which she would have preferred etc.
There are also much better work placement links at her first choice, which was the most important factor for her when she was looking at unis.
It’s actually such a complex decision and actually, I wish we didn’t even have to consider it.
It is a bit of a mess.

honestly, I'd say stay where she is. Unis are in a messed up position right now, so whilst something may have gone wrong with UCAS (??) would she want to go somewhere that messed up the admissions so badly? If she's happy where she is and has a friendship group, I'd stay. Plus accomodation, fees for you in England - it's alot. She made her choice, is happy - why mess that up? Sounds like a total ball of stress frankly.

I agree.

She’s on a course she’s not loving. If her preferred course is now offering a place it seems a no-brainer to accept it, especially if UCAS is offering to cover extra costs incurred. If she can start in first year all the better but if she’s socially inclined she’ll make friends anyway.

They have told her there would be costs covered.

I would rather regret something I did do rather than something I didn’t do. Now you know she could go to her first choice place, if she doesn’t go there will always be a what if.

Visit the first choice place, ask lots of questions, double check things that appealed to her like the placement opportunities are definitely still available and will be available when she comes to do placements. Check the accommodation situation.

I think she should go for it.

Head or heart decision. I’m a heart decision person but that can come at a cost at times and I’ve learned that myself over the years; not to say I’m not happy with my life decisions because I am.
However, although this involves us as parents, it’s not our decision. It has to be hers. I really wish she were happy in the fullest sense of the word, at her current uni because then she would have no decision to make.
We don’t want it to be out of the frying pan and in to the fire when there are positives about where she currently is.
This is why I can’t really offer a ‘heart’ opinion because it could be very costly to her, both emotionally and financially. It would be very unfair to sway her decision; it has to hers and hers alone but always with our full support.

I don’t think the social side will be an issue. Dd (third year) has older friends in many different years, it isn’t like school where you stick with your year group.
So if she wants to shift then going into the second year seems best really, pointless to go back a year if the course is fairly similar.
Go and have a look again, if she still feels it’s the better fit, then move.

I agree with this. If a mistake was made last year your DD should not suffer financially because of it. Uni 2 should waive fees for the first year really.

I would seriously consider it, if she's not blissfully happy with current course.

Having done a lot of potentially risky choices in my life, it's the chances I didn't take that I regret more than any of the ones I did.

It is appalling that it's taken this long for them to sort out though - especially given the need to secure 2nd year accommodation.

Personally I’d stay where I was, this tells me there has been a huge amount of people dropping out which doesn’t sit right with me.

I’ve never heard of this, very odd. If your DD was not offered a place due to a massive cock up, it doesn’t bode well for what the experience studying there might be like. It sounds like they are worried about student numbers but this is an odd way of going about it as they are effectively poaching from other unis. So two issues here which suggest the infrastructure and leadership is a bit wobbly. There may be practical reasons for all this but on the face of it, it does not look good.

‘It might be to do with the drop-out rate’ - This reason would be alarming / off-putting in itself.

I think the first year is for making friends & having fun, from year2 friendship groups are made, houseshares underway & knuckling down to work - not the time to move for fun. It’s not unusual to have a wobble in the first year of living away & can happen anywhere, even somewhere they grow to love.

Repeating year1 seems wasteful in time, especially if she already has postgraduate education in mind, it’s another year of working/saving up a house deposit/pension & lost for nothing but more debt.

There will be pros and cons to both institutions, cities & courses. I just can’t imagine UCAS are going to pay a years fees/ accommodation/help towards living costs/ moving costs/ cover all her year2 accommodation in existing Uni - if that’s the package they offer then they must have seriously cocked up! I’d be livid with UCAS if this is their doing & wanting to speak to someone senior for a proper explanation, I’m very surprised the initial letter didn’t contain a carefully crafted explanation that had gone through their legal team.

This is absolutely scandalous, particularly the part about some already privileged pupils being wrongly offered lower contextual offers.

Do you know how many institutions were involved?

At what point was this problem identified? Surely, if this related to the same error they would have been in contact earlier? Particularly because of people committing to accommodation etc.

It depends whose error it was. If it was UCAS:

1. current Uni will lose her fees for years 2&4
2. favourite Uni will lose fees for year 1 (if she goes straight into year 2
3. or if she goes into year 1 she may incur another years debt (plus parental support costs)

What a mess @labsarelife so sorry you and your dd have been presented with this dilemma

@90swithcigarettesandalcohol I believe a large number of institutions were affected as UCAS obviously covers admissions throughout the sector. I don't know more details and don't want to give wrong information. In my role, I haven't dealt with the fall-out directly, but was just briefed in a meeting. That was a couple of months ago.

At my place, we allowed people with "wrong offers" to remain in situ as those offers were made in good faith and extended new offers to those who had been wrongly not made lower offers. As I say, it only affected half a dozen people or so and I believe everyone reached a satisfactory outcome.

Universities are just as capable of errors as any large institution, but in this case, we are reliant on information passed to us by the central service, so the institution wouldn't be at fault here.

Assuming that is what is going on here, of course. But it is a known error, and it would fit.

That is very odd are you sure it's real and not some sort of scam?
Even if it is real if she is happy where she is has settled down and made friends I don't think it makes sense for her to start all over again apart from anything else there are financial implications and are you confident she will be able to get a loan to cover fees if she starts again she would need to apply again for a loan.

@JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff thanks for your insights. Of course human error can occur and if there has been mal administration by UCAS it wasn’t intentional. It’s only a handful of people but it’s annoying and frustrating to those that lost out initially (& who potentially could lose time & money over it now.) It’s especially galling if it is indeed due to the fact they should have been given a contextual offer due to their more difficult life circumstances so far.

Sorry I have just seen your later posts that make clear it isn't scam. And that costs will be covered and that your daughter isn't happy with the course content at her present university. How different is the first choice course content. I think she needs to go through it carefully to see if it is different enough to warrant changing and if it is will she be able to cope going into year two.
If she starts over again in year1 even if UCAS cover some costs there will be extra cost implications for you and for her.

I’d go to the better uni and start in Year 2 if I could. Anything to improve my carreer prospects in the current environment. And the social side should not be an issue. Young people are much more open to friendships. And those who form closed-off cliques - she doesn’t need them. There will be loads of peopls who will welcome her with open arms. (I’d be one of those people).

Yes, living with the ‘what if’ is tricky if you are not certain of the uni you are at and I’m a big believer in following your gut but if she’s not, than that is fine.
It would be a brave move for anyone to make to be honest and the crux of it is, how unhappy/happy is she currently because that’s what it really rests on; her happiness.
When all is said and done, we just want our children to be happy.

OP: there is also a resilience in putting your energy into what you are doing rather than flitting about following your ‘heart’ and fretting that something else might be better.

Neither of you know whether life on the other course wouldn’t also have less optimum bits. Most do!

I'd agree this smells fishy. UCAS messed up and it's just some way to mitigate the issue

Personally if they equally good unis I'd stick with where she is

DH and I worked in higher education forever, well 60 years combined roughly. I have never heard of this. Just seen the issue with contextual offers by @JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff, what a mess.

I understand why you wouldn’t write but wondering which Universities are involved, DH and I have worked in 3 of the top 10.

There are also aspects of the course, that would have suited her better at her first choice - it’s less research intensive, which she would have preferred etc.
There are also much better work placement links at her first choice, which was the most important factor for her when she was looking at unis.

This seems quite important to me.

There are reasons that it was her first choice.