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.

But that is not very specific. Unless that are willing to cover the cost of the years worth of accommodation and tuition fees, not to mention food/travel etc then it needs careful consideration, especially if she was not considering leaving until she got this news.

This seems unethical of the university, especially if DD/students would be re-doing year 1 at very high expense! They would also need to explain the change of universities when applying for jobs etc.

In your shoes I’d be advising DD not to switch unless to year 2 with extra support.

It’s very unusual, isn’t it? I thought it was but thought I’d check on here just in case others had experienced it.

We have another call due and also an email, giving further info - both due. I agree with you. We should not be liable for costs.

It sounds to me like this University has made a bit of a mess of things. It sounds very chaotic to me.

Why weren't they able to provide the full information of what's going on when they first contacted your daughter? Why reveal things in steps?

Honestly I think I'd give this a miss. The grass isn't always greener on the other side. I think the stability of a known course, accommodation, fellow students is probably beneficial here.

Does this uni run the Masters she'd need to do? If they messed up on offering her an undergrad place, maybe it's worth asking whether she might be given favourable consideration when it comes to the Masters.

I agree. This is very strange. I think you need to check for authenticity, it could be some awful, malicious scam. Don't use any of the contact details in the letter / email. I'd consider contacting the uni, rather than UCAS. I think it's got to be a considerable step up / improvement to contemplate moving. Ask the uni what they have to offer.

If it's authentic, I'd be checking online for what's going on financially at both universities. Lots are struggling at the moment, even RG unis, unfortunately.

Sounds like a huge upheaval even for a prestigious name.

Hope you'll post an update in due course as it is a most odd offer.

If she's going to be doing a Masters and doctorate anyway, I would stay for the 4 years and do postgraduate at the preferred university/city. She's more likely to put down roots then, so if it's a nice city that would work out well. It's also something to look forward to.

If the year in industry is away from the university or abroad, I'd think about asking to move in yr4, as most of the ties (rental contract, friendships) will be broken by the year out.

We’ve now established that it was an UCAS error and no fault whatsoever on the part of university who are now offering help and support, if we need it and choose to pursue their offer.

That would be an option to do a postgrad there. If she decides to take up the offer, it has to be in the coming academic year and can’t be postponed.

Probably. The rules on international students mean that many universities are struggling to recruit enough UK students to make courses financially viable.

It would be a big upheaval and would take a certain amount of courage on my daughter’s part. If she decides to change, then that’s proof enough for me that she really wants to be there and always wanted to be there.
I will give an update. I suspect that she won’t take the place but she is still undecided.

It’s not. There was an admissions error. We initially had the same thoughts as you but it’s not the case.

It was an admissions error and I’ve had official confirmation of that today.

It’s a take it this year or not, type of scenario sadly.

Fair enough, it was just a thought.

It would be starting again in year one, with her current uni fees for her ‘wasted’ first year, paid for by way of recompense but we have paid out a lot of our own money for her to do her first year at uni - never mind tuition fees. So they’ve agreed there is a conversation to be had….

Thank you everyone for your input. I actually did find out what had happened and why the situation had occurred, from someone who posted here who worked in the field of uni management etc. I’m really grateful for all of your responses and opinions.
Thoughts and opinions are wide and varied but it’s given me all angles to consider this problem from.
I’ve had everything confirmed today by official sources and we are now in conversation with UCAS and will soon be in contact with the relevant uni.
I will update as to the outcome. It’s my daughter’s decision and we will support her, whatever she decides. I have a hunch she will stay at her current uni. We just want her to be happy ultimately, which is all we truly want for our children when all is said and done.

I can understand why you may not want to post the actual universities but I do think the actual universities in question are a major factor in the decision here.

If the first choice is Oxford, Cambridge or Imperial then I would say it's definitely worth the upheaval and that these universities will open doors later in life.

A lot of posts here seem to be focussing on the financials only. Obviously that is not insignificant and it depends on your family finances - but it will be small fry in the grand scheme of things and you don't want her to regret not taking the opportunity when it came.

It sounds like you are in a strong position to negotiate for costs also given what they have admitted to / conceded already. So do push hard - politely and calmly obviously.

I would make the move to the first choice.

@labsarelife what an unusual and upsetting situation. If it’s been a known issue for a few months did they tell you why it’s taken them this long to contact her and let her know? Effectively a year?

I’m really curious as to what actually happened, as she got offers from other equivalent Universities. Did they offer her contextual offers but the preferred Uni thought she should have the standard offer so rejected her? If so that would suggest UCAS made a mistake with some of her data not all? Or with the data they sent to some Unis not all? I wonder how it came to light that UCAS had made a systematic error?

I still think if she’s now settled, has friends and performed well in her current Uni for her first year she should stay there. There are lots of what ifs in life & this would be one of them but if her current trajectory is good then why throw more time and money away? I would be hissing the word UCAS at home though!

A UCAS error?! And offer of year 1 repeat rather than year 2 entry when she’ll have completed and passed year 1 at her current university, is poor IMO

So would it be UCAS paying the fees? How much recompense for other costs to you/DD? Accommodation for September could be tricky if she moves.

The decision about a year 2 entry will be up to the new university as they will be the awarding body. It could be that the 2 courses don’t map to each other well enough for University B to be confident that enough original work would have been completed in order to qualify. For instance if university A teach research methods in Year 1 but University B teach it in year 2 then a transferring student would be learning pretty much the same content twice.

This seems very odd. Have you tried to establish the actual reason for this? Contacted UCAS?

Maybe try reading the thread? 🙄