Gap year regrets

[Chocolatear]

My DS has a deferred place for Loughborough, starting in 2021.

With the current problems he has decided that he would be better off going in September this year, grades allowing.

Does anyone have any experience of this? I presume it depends on how many have applied for the course. He plans to start calling the faculty this week, if anyone is there.

What were his plans for a Gap Year?

Earning some money and a ski season.

I doubt universities will have a problem. Numbers are going to be well down because foreign students will not be coming over. Some universities may close as ultimately they are businesses.

Get him to phone the admissions department and ask. I bet they will be able to talk him through how to switch to this year on UCAS.

It looks like something that the university will have to do for him, assuming a positive outcome. This is in the UCAS section re making changes:

Course, year, or point of entry

If you're happy with the university or college but you'd like to change the course details, you'll need to get in touch with the university or college rather than us.

Then if they agree to it, they'll let us know about the change.If you've already had an offer from them, we'll update Track to show the new details.

He should email rather than phone. Most staff are WFH and that way you get paper trail.

Emails are currently disappearing into the ether for admissions staff. I would definitely call first and then ask them to email confirmation.

I would think that they'll be happy to have him paying fees come September, but if it's a popular course, might not be able to give him an immediate answer as there is a proposal for cap on student numbers per institution for the coming academic year. They will want to know if this his going to happen before they make any more offers as there will be big penalties for them going over it.
Your DS needs to bear in mind the fact that it won't be a "normal" fresher experience, and that depending on the nature of the course, there is a strong possibility that studies will be online from home for at least the first term, or he may even have a January start.