When will Universities get A Level results this year?

[purplepatricia]

I'm sorry, I know this question is asked every year.. will it be Thursday 10th?

Thank you

My ds deferred a year as well @Nobledeedsandhotbaths and wonders what to do if misses grades. In the long term he can reapply with grades. However, there is another course at his firm with lower grade requirement he might consider if grades slip as still subject very interested in and linked to main interest. Would deferred students be able to ring University in this instance?

At our place, this decision happens on Wednesday afternoon, to go live overnight ready for Thursday morning.

Only by Wednesday when the 'Confirmation' part of the week is done would we know for sure which courses need to clearing.

I've also got a deferrer here who think he may have missed his grades (needs AAA for firm)

I'm assuming that he's less likely to sneak in with say AAB than he would have been if he'd applied for this year because there's no pressure to fill next year's places yet?

If an applicant has had a grade slippage of just a grade in one or two subjects (eg ABB against AAA), then we would treat them as a 'near miss' in exactly the same way as someone starting this year. If the application is strong, we would look for evidence to enable us to accept them anyway - see my previous posts on this.

If the grade slippage is more severe, we would reject and the applicant would need to apply afresh for the following year. The positive thing here is that we like grades 'in hand' coupled with a strong personal statement.

Again, my usual caveat: all universities are different 🙂

Not necessarily - at my uni, we treat all applicants the same. We would consider AAB instead of AAA to be a very near miss. If there is strong PS, a good portfolio of subjects for the subject concerned and any essential subjects are at the required grade, then we would look at that favourably.

Thank you @JoanThursday . Good to know. Just a waiting game now...

I work in a central uni dept with access to the results, for years worked in Admissions. And DS waiting for his a level results. If DS had applied to my uni I would be able to find out already (some if his friends have).

I'd lose my job if find out though. It's good to be on the other side. I had a boss once who's DC had applied here, he got IT to lock him out of the system for the week so he wasn't tempted.

@littlequestion same here ! Need AAA. The firm was in early clearing at ABB for the subject, but given the deferral I agree with you that the chances of confirming a bum on a seat for that Uni a year in advance is small, unless grades are met. Suspect DC will be reapplying with grades in hand. To be honest, DC is not convinced about the firm anymore - campus Uni and given the travelling already done and planned, as well as the work plans, is now thinking city based Uni would be better as the campus may seem a bit quiet after a year of independence.

Will be interesting to see if DC decides they still want to go to Uni, back to assessments (which may or not be marked) and the strikes (which have really impacted their siblings experience), not to mention the cost of it all. Siblings recommending Uni for the social side but academically they have felt very let down and underwhelmed (Russell Gp Top 10 unis) given the impact of strikes and the marking boycott.

Next year the cohort of 18 year olds is up again and no doubt the % internationals will increase again in order for unis to increase revenue. The home, non contextual students are the ones being squeezed, so definitely feel it will pay to be smart about who to apply to.

Good luck on Thursday to your DC

Just saw @JoanThursday replied while I was typing - thank you for that information. I didn't realise deferrers would be treated similarly to this years applicants.

Yes, its a worth a go! But best send an email so its in writing and your son should do that ASAP. If I received an email like that, I would put a note on the applicant's record. If there is grade slippage, then we can take action accordingly, if there are places on the 'plan B' course and the achieved grades are appropriate.

Where I work, applicants who are rejected are held in a 'pool' over Monday and Tuesday. Until Wednesday, other departments in the uni can take a look at these applications and make a case for change of course referrals.

For example, an applicant who missed the A grade in maths for a Comp Sci course may be offered a place on a creative media degree instead.

This change of course offer would be visible to the applicant on Thurs AM. They don't need to accept it and, if they don't and its their firm choice, they will drop to their insurance choice if the grades fit.

Thank you so much to @JoanThursday and @FarEast for sharing your expertise.

My pleasure! You'll now have to now report back on how the DCs got on and where they've ended up. I'm invested now!

The awarding of grades and then the confirmation process by the universities would make a great fly on the wall documentary!

Dd has applied for a gateway to medicine degree at Bristol, we believe there are only 20 places.

Mitigating circumstances declared to the university and she meets one of the very niche criteria.

My main worry is if she doesn't get BBC , it will be a straight rejection as its such a small course.

What is the ucas embargo? Waiting for results in Thursday for btecs and a levels with a low offer but significant mitigating circumstances

Universities already know the results. Schools will get them on Wednesday. But nobody involved is allowed to tell students until Thursday at 8.00.

Thanks @PrivateSchoolTeacherParent!

More info on the embargo on my previous posts up there ☝️🙂

My DS wants to go for insurance rather than firm and ask to defer a year. Is there any point trying to contact the insurance uni tomorrow (they did send an email saying unavailable until results day) or just wait for results day and start trying to ring from 8am? He's likely to have got the grades for firm. Thanks

Oh thank you, I thought maybe no one was allowed to go onto the website

Unfortunately, the insurance uni wouldn't be able to do anything here as you can't change your mind and favour the insurance choice instead.

If an applicant has met the conditions of the firm choice, the usual process is to decline the offer, go into Clearing and contact the insurance choice. This would be for 2023 entry: you could take the chance, accept a clearing offer and then request deferral until 2024. The university in question may say yes.

Alternatively, another route is to withdraw completely and reapply for 2024 entry. Before you do that, though, check the admissons course pages to ensure the course is still running with the same entry requirements- things can change!

This thread is really informative so thank you to Joan and others for their insight into the process. I was wondering whether all grade drops are considered equal by admissions when reviewing near misses? So if a course required A star A A, would A, A, A and Astar A, B be considered the same, or would A, A, A be thought of as being closer to the required grades?

Thanks for the info and reassurance @JoanThursday and good luck to everyone's DC for Thursday. I'm simultaneously counting down the days and dreading it!

In terms of ucas points they are of course considered equal. However some unis (including mine) only use grades when it comes to making offers.

During confirmation, in the main we would consider AAA and AAB to be equivalent. One caveat here is where an essential subject requires a grade A. Someone with AAA would be favoured above another with AAB with the B in the essential subject.

The final outcome may be the same (ie both might get a place), but if we need to rank 'near miss' applicants, then the AAA with the required A in an essential subject may rank higher.

Again, all unis are different, etc!

Forgot about the asterisk / bold thing - sorry!

AAB should be A*AB.

Another recruitment/admissions staff member here - just wanted to add some other pieces of info to the useful advice in advance of Thursday! (Apologies for any duplicates!)

UCAS isn't live with university admissions systems, it works on a bulk upload/download process. So we don't see what applicants have done (i.e. accepted their offer), or other university updates, immediately - and similarly students don't see our updates straight away. We get so many repeat and panicked phone calls about this because no one ever tells students this!

Secondly, when you add a clearing choice AFTER being made a verbal offer from a uni, UCAS will say that we're "considering your application" - again nothing to panic about. It just means that when we get students information (in the next upload), we can match up what is on the system to what they've told us on the phone... it's amazing how many Ds can become Bs etc.
(As a side note, if you add a Clearing choice before speaking to a university, it will be declined.)

If a student doesn't meet the grades for their Firm but they are offered an alternative course by that university, and they meet the grades for their Insurance and are accepted there, they are able to make a choice between the two. New course at firm Uni, or insurance course at insurance Uni. Again, another quirk of results day that is never spoken about!

Finally - if a student needs to ring a uni, pleeeease make them go old school and have a pen and paper at the ready (and their ucas ID!). So many hang up when trying to find their notepad on their phone!

15 years of being on the phone on results day and I could go on and on 🙃 Good luck to all the anxious parents!