Niece changed her mind on course so asking for clearing help!

[Clearingnow]

My sis is pulling her hair out as her eldest daughter has decided she no longer wants to study business management at Uni so she plans to go Into clearing. Is that possible - can she decline her firm and insurance today before results come out? She now wants to do modern languages with business instead and has found a number of courses she likes in clearing at Newcastle, Birmingham and Leicester. Essex is also in clearing for that course but she is not so keen on that as too near to home. Any advice appreciated particularly whether you can turn down offers today and go into clearing. Thank you!

UCAS is normally locked for a couple of days before Results Day, i.e. no changes can be made by students or advisers. This is to give the unis a clear run-up to tomorrow while making their decisions. Good luck!

She should check tomorrow they are still in clearing. They will be updated overnight and she may be disappointed.

Do the unis she has insured and firmed offer the same course as it may be easier to call and switch at the existing place she gets into especially as languages are often undersubscribed?

so If UCAS is locked today she can’t decline and will be automatically accepted by her firm tomorrow if she gets the grades? Can you decline it tomorrow and go into clearing - does declining take long to do as she might miss clearing places if so?

You can decline a confirmed offer once it's been marked as "unconditional" (which is what happens once a uni has accepted your grades). This will release her directly into Clearing.

https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/clearing-and-results-day/results-day/declining-your-firm-place

She should check that she would be accepted on a new course first. She can phone the uni's in the morning and if one of them makes her an offer then she can decline her original straight away and add the new one as a clearing choice after 1pm tomorrow.

Tomorrow she can decline both offers and enter into Clearing without issue. She just needs to make sure her achieved grades are in line with what her new choices are asking in the morning, so would suggest arriving early to school to collect results and then cracking on.

She needs to update student finance when she’s changed.

I would second the suggestion of PP though - does the uni she’s holding as firm offer the course she wants? It would be easier to swap, and she’d be confident she liked the uni.

has she visited any of these new unis?

Some but not all unis won't speak to students about Clearing or make offers until the student has a Clearing Number, which only happens after declining the original place. (Argh!)

I also agree that if original uni offers new course, it's worth a call!

Thank you for all the replies. No, she hasn’t visited any of the new unis but is familiar with Leicester and Newcastle as cities. Never been to Birmingham but her school are saying it is a really good Uni which is basically a campus outside the city. Her existing unis - Bath (firm) and Liverpool (insurance) don’t offer the course she wants which is a shame so no chance of switching

Bath is a very high ranking university for business and management. It looks like they do courses with a language and option for a year abroad or two 6 month placements. Is she sure she can't mould her degree to her interests if she sticks with Bath?

What grades might she expect?

Some but not all unis won't speak to students about Clearing or make offers until the student has a Clearing Number, which only happens after declining the original place. (Argh!)

I also agree that if original uni offers new course, it's worth a call!

In the current climate most uni's would make a provisional offer even if they hadn't yet declined their place .....that's what I've advised all my clearing staff to do as we can't afford to lose keen students!

If it's a selective course/uni then obviously they may insist on the student being released into clearing first but it's certainly worth a phone call first.
Students can decline their place through ucas now so technically they could do it while on the phone to the new university which would solve that issue.

There is a pretty much complete embargo on stuff until 8am tomorrow (Thursday). My admissions tutor colleagues won't even email us to let us know how we're doing.

Most university home pages (landing pages) will have something about Clearing on them. Mine has an email thing you can sign up to which will notify you if there are vacancies in the course you're looking for.

So rather than ringing, she can spend today seeing if the universities she's looking at have something similar.

Then tomorrow, after 8am, she can re-check the Home pages for directions to Clearing in the universities she's interested in.

I'd be cautious and not duck out of my Confirmed & Insurance offers till I'd done this, but given she doesn't want either course sh chose in May, it may not harm her prospects.

But the usual order of events is to have an informal offer of a place she wants, then withdraw from her confirmed place. It is important to be direct & as prompt as is judicious about withdrawal from your confirmed & insurance offer, as they can then be offered to other applicants. (In theory, Universities can require you to take up a place, but no university will actually do that in practice!).

Yes, however it does sometimes crash so I would suggest being up and ready to go and get results, checking UCAS as you go.
I say this because if he doesn’t have his place confirmed he can’t do clearing without his grades so any delay there could be problematic.

Yes. IT's the simplest aspect of the whole thing.

Although UCAS track can sometimes be VERY glitchy (if not unavailable) at 8am on Results Day. No server in the world can take the traffic!

Thanks, that's good to know, and I absolutely agree that the student could in theory release into clearing there and then when on the 'phone.

The 'in theory' is that, seen from the school end of things, students (and parents) are often on multiple phones while juggling a laptop or sitting in one of the school computer rooms, or trying to get coffee or something. It's all very chaotic from the student end of things and people are sitting on hold for a long time only to panic when they're eventually connected!

As for UCAS falling over most years on results day, you would think that the spike in demand is utterly predictable and they would hire more server capacity for a couple of hours! It seemed to be mostly fine last year, for what it's worth.

The 'in theory' is that, seen from the school end of things, students (and parents) are often on multiple phones while juggling a laptop or sitting in one of the school computer rooms, or trying to get coffee or something. It's all very chaotic from the student end of things and people are sitting on hold for a long time only to panic when they're eventually connected!

Oh absolutely.... I really do appreciate that. I'm an ex-careers adviser who spent 10 years in schools and have worked clearing from a uni perspective for 16.

The panic is real! I tell all my staff to make sure they answer the phone saying the name of the university as we know people panic or get confused!

I take my hat off to you, @GCSister, going from Careers Advice to Admissions must mean that the third Thursday of August has never been easy! (Our head careers guy is absolutely amazing throughout the year and especially on Results Day. He will be available at all hours until everyone is safely sorted, and you'll know that can take weeks with reviews of marking.)

That's great to hear! Careers staff are so often overlooked but it's a really important job.
Oh yeah, this week is busy every year but I love it. It can be really rewarding.

Update to say DN has been verbally offered a place at Newcastle through clearing. She’s delighted but disappointed she didn’t get all her predicted A stars ending up with a B in one subject. A-level results at her school are all over the place - but fortunately unis seem to be being rather lenient with missed grades this year?