Southampton publishes Clearing grade requirements

[HPFA]

I think this is the first time I've seen an RG Uni publishing Clearing grade requirements before Results Day.

It's not for all courses but a lot of popular subjects nonetheless

https://www.southampton.ac.uk/clearing/course-vacancies?subject=All+Subjects&filter=&studentType=uk&availableOnly=true

Not sure what it means for those students holding offers at Southampton - does it indicate how far they can drop grades and still get in?

I wonder if a system where you selected 5 or so Universitites in order of preference then after your results you were given offers would work? Maybe it would be a bit late to sort everything out before October, but surely that's the same as Clearing?

@poetryandwine Could the numbers be managed though? Look how long it takes some universities to respond now! So between mid August and mid September (few start in October) how would they manage? It would be horrible for staff surely?

I agree completely. I am ambivalent at best about Clearing. When spaces are available the option to trade up is a very good one. As for the rest, my opinion above is pretty clear.

The Y13 and uni Y1 calendar would need revision to do the whole thing properly.

Wow I’m shocked at some of these low offers

Just can’t see how this is all sustainable at all

more. Question of when will these unis go bust and what will happen to dcs in the middle of courses when the unis inevitably go bust at some point

It strikes me it is all a bit of fakery. Schools predict high to get their kids offers. Universities have high typical offers to try to attract good students and make themselves look exclusive. Kids apply, get high offers then drop their grades a bit (or even a lot) but get in anyway to their firm choice. If you were savy you would apply based on last years clearing grades for the best university you could get on that basis. Or trade up on results day but I think the problem it’s all the last minute uncertainty.

i know my theory doesn’t work for the most competitive universities and courses but it does seem to be the minority.

I wonder if you were predicted this years clearing grades or just over and applied for next year, would the uni’s offer at probably the standard offer and then let you in? Let’s say a course was standard offer AAA, clearing 2025 BBC and you were predicted BBB. If you apply for 2026 and got an AAA offer, get BBC on the day and still get in. It would take a lots of holding your nerve and of course relies on the same clearing patterns each year which is not guaranteed but again I think it wouldn’t be a stupid strategy to get the best uni you can. On the other hand maybe if you are going to be predicted BBB you would be better off on a course where the standard offer is BBB.

My DC is in year 12 going into year 13 and we will be making notes on her potential courses on Thursday.

@TelephoneWiresThe scenario of “getting in anyway” won’t apply to all universities or all courses. There are universities that fill up many courses and there’s no guarantee of anything changing for those highly popular courses. If you want some computer science or law courses you won’t find them in clearing. If you want less popular subjects where universities are scrabbling for students, then dc may well be able to trade up. It’s very confusing for dc and parents though.

I don’t accept schools over predict just to get dc offers. I think they predict honestly in most cases but aren’t very good at it in around 25% of cases apparently! All sorts of things can go wrong on the exam day for dc or go right and they get better results.

I wonder if students work out who has met the AAA offer and who has squeaked in with BBC? My DD noticed some A levels taken by some students wasn’t great prep for her course a few years ago now. Mainly lack of essay writing skills and research skills. It’s going to make it even more costly to the univsities to put on catch up classes or essay skills classes more frequently.

IMO a unit of admission is doing something wrong if the offer is AAA and BBC is accepted in Clearing. I was an Admissions Tutor as we were raising our standards and we were over optimistic one year, and one year afterwards. But we never dropped grades nearly as far as that.

It would have been unfair to the students. We were very good about laying on extra support in a positive manner but as I outlined above, it largely backfired. I don’t deny that the hope is that students admitted through Clearing will up their game whilst helping universities fighting for their lives. Occasionally it works and that’s fantastic. More often Clearing students seem to struggle and one wonders if they would have been better off making more of an opportunity they felt more comfortable with.

Using Clearing to trade up is different. That I do approve of.

Were you in STEM @poetryandwine ? I think humanities are a bit different. For example, my Ds largely got BBC because he didn’t complete more than 75% of any paper, as he ran out of time. He got As and A stars for the questions he did. Which suggests to me that if he ends up on a course which is largely assessed via coursework and not exams, he should be able to compete with the AAA students. His issue is slow processing (plus a good dose of not deciding to work until the last minute - which I think has changed! 🤞). But I can see that BBC gained as a result of not understanding the harder content would be more of a worry. The bottom line though, is that no admissions tutor will know the reason for the lower grades - could also be illness/bereavement/missing a page by mistake etc etc

Yes, I am in STEM and I think you’ve said something important. I suppose if students like your DS are faced with high stakes exams and no extra time, being a slower processor can be an issue but otherwise I agree with you.

Thank you for sharing

I feel certain that somebody had a spreadsheet(?) of last year’s Clearing grades, but I can’t seem to find it.

DD’s 1st choice are keeping quiet about what will be in clearing until Thursday.

If anybody has seen anything of this nature I’d love a link.

It is required that that in winding down a university or a unit the students in the midst of a degree programme be given an opportunity to complete it. Exactly what that means is a matter for interpretation.

Worth looking into extra time at university. For diagnosed dyslexic students I have worked as a reader in exams and many also have 25% extra time as part of their access arrangements.

There was a thread with links to unis that had advertised their grades but I imagine those links are dead now.

Some unis opted not to advertise the grades they were accepting at all but you could probably make a reasonable inference from those that were. If Notts, Southampton and Liverpool are adverising History at BBC then unis of a similar or lower ranking wont be demanding AAB.

I think most school predict optimistically with what they think the student could get on a good day with a following wind. Some don’t and it is really unfair that there is a difference in how schools do it. I have heard on here before that there are schools that flat out won’t predict any A*s but how will those students ever get an offer from St Andrews, LSE or Oxford for example?

We've had a few ‘market failures’ in the private HE sector. All providers have shut their doors with pretty much immediate effect. The Office for Students acts as facilitator and finds the students alternative places to go - though no large public provider with its own degree awarding powers has yet gone under. In that situation I would expect the institution to finish the academic year out to enable finalists to complete. Other local providers would take remaining students, though there’d be no obligation to do so of course.

Sheffield have their (current) clearing grades up. The course I know about is on for 4 grades lower than it started off in clearing last year.

A university that I work for directly related not hitting their targets in clearing to a subsequent round of voluntary redundancies and they are ranked in the mid 20s in UK league tables.

What’s available in Clearing will likely keep changing until results day as unis process results and as students are declined by firms and insurances make decisions.
Bear in mind, some places listed might have literally one place, although some will have lots.
I’d say the Clearing picture only starts to be properly clear on the evening before results and on results day itself. For anxious parents who wake early, looking early morning at uni websites (and screenshotting) can be time well spent.

And for anyone with kids in yr12 who knows what they want to study and where, screen shot at 8.15am and again at mid-day and end of day. Don’t do links as they expire or only reflect current situation that quickly expires. You’ll see then what was available at the start and also how fast the most popular courses vanish and which are not quite so competitive and hang around a bit longer.
By looking over the next few days you can also see which unis have places and courses which linger longer or never fill.

Thanks @WombatChocolate

@fluffythecat1 That’s inevitable though as income is dented. Most companies with lack of sales have to take action to remain solvent. If the universities had remained smaller, there would be enough students to go round.

And for anyone with kids in yr12 who knows what they want to study and where, screen shot at 8.15am and again at mid-day and end of day. Don’t do links as they expire or only reflect current situation that quickly expires. You’ll see then what was available at the start and also how fast the most popular courses vanish and which are not quite so competitive and hang around a bit longer.
I have a DS in this position and was planning on screenshotting the beginning of the day. Once you have all that information, what do you do with it??!! Do you say ' These are worth calling even if they are currently asking over your predictions' or assess why some are still in clearing?

Its just extra information.

A DC who's predicted BBC but wants Russell Group could decide to do their application through Clearing on Results Day. Obviously they'd have to consider whether they want the extra uncertainty and also whether they'd be happy on a course where they have worse grades than most of the people around them. But having the information means they can make a more informed choice

The info is useful for informing yr12 ucas applications. So a student can see if a particular uni course went to Clearing and with what grades. If it did, and with grades below the standard offer advertised for 2026, an applicant who just meets the offer with predicted grades (or is possibly below) could feel more confident of getting an offer.
Likewise, an applicant who fears they may not be able to actually achieve their aspirational predicted grades could take some comfort that this uni course is likely to be a bit flexible come results day.
Those courses not in Clearing or only in at the standard offer may well be less flexible with applicants for 2026. It’s useful info.

Many mid RG unis will go to Clearing with lower offers for all but the most popular courses. Knowing this helps students apply for better places rather than feel that they might not be able to get into such places and accept lower than they need to.

It’s simply about getting as much info as possible about the applications landscape. You can guarantee that those in private schools are being given info to help them aspire high. More people can do this….but they need info to do it.

So would you say look at courses where they have slightly higher offers and screenshot the clearing courses? DS has been told to put one aspirational, 3 expected and one emergency down but there doesn't seem much point putting down anything but expected to get offers then trade up/down if need be in clearing. DS is ill in bed today but when he's better I'll get him to look at slightly higher and choose the courses he likes so I can screenshot on Thursday.

I think it's more likely they will severely close courses/ sell off/ mothball buildings/ merge before they go bust completely. That should mean that students on courses will still be on them but maybe they won't recruit first years then completely close the courses. The problem is that STEM courses are the most expensive. Hopefully though they are the ones more likely to be full so won't close.