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?

Universities got the grades yesterday so are well aware how many of their Firms made the grade.

Yes, but they also need to see how many of their Insurance candidates are accepted by their Firms, despite missing offers, before they can process those people. These figures then impact whether they decide to accept some of their own near-miss candidates. Some unis and courses will take lots of near misses. Some will take none. Some will be able to take some and will be looking closely at which subjects they missed their grades in - the key ones or not, to decide who to take or bin. They might also revert to the PS and GCSE profile at the point where it’s all v marginal between a few candidates and all can’t be taken.
It takes a couple of days to shake down and through the system, which is why the embargo lasts several days.
Even come results day, a few unis will tell some near misses that they might be able to offer in a few days…they are basically seeing if someone better comes via Clearing.

But the accommodation options are restricted by clearing, if you are looking at Bristol / Bath then you need to read the small print re clearing. The 2 x dc I know who went to Exeter / Nottingham last year via clearing both had to go into private halls off campus.
A good clearing option for accommodation is Warwick as all accommodation is allocated after results but it generally has few courses in clearing.

Def check the individual uni websites re Clearing and accommodation guarantee.

If they can guarantee Clearing students they will, as it makes it much easier to fill. Often they will guarantee Clearing but not Insurance.

Alresdy some are making clear on websites that they will guarantee Clearing students / more than previously I think.

But check carefully… the guarantee can sometimes include uni approved accom - where most are in uni owned accom, this can be a way to include private halls or private accom in the guarantee.

Aah. Good point. I have a bit of a fear about private accommodation as I went into private accommodation in my first year of uni ( many moons ago). I hated it, wasn't ready, ended up almost being SA by my landlord, hated my housemates and ended up quitting uni and coming home even though I loved my course and my subject and did the same course at a different uni, from home. I didn't have the uni experience I wanted until I did my Masters years later. This was, as I said many years ago and I know it's different now but DS looking at unis has brought it all back a bit.

My DS picked a lower ranking uni, despite having good A level grades, because of a particular USP. Unfortunately the USP has had to be scaled back due to budget cuts after they failed to fill lots of courses. Modules too have been dropped. The whole system can be an academic minefield, he's not my first child to go through uni, but I've been shocked at how much miss-selling a uni can get away with. They may be a business, but standard business rules don't seem to apply.

And to the people querying whether students can cope with RG unis when they have lower grades. Many, many students succeed at uni after finding school a struggle, it's a different learning style and at the same time students with high grade A levels who have been tutored and trained to regurgitate facts might struggle. The whole A level system is a farce really and I'm saying that as a parent with children who vary academically.

This is misleading about Nottingham. They guaranteed accommodation in university allocated halls for all first years applying within a week of results day last year. If you apply through the uni your dc will be in with other Uni of Nottingham students with ResX support which includes socials throughout the year. Some of the self catered halls are on jubilee campus as opposed to university park which is mainly catered. Some of the halls are officially owned by fhe university and some of them are private but if you apply through the uni for the self catered private halls you are having the same support as officially owned halls. I do recall that some parents booked private halls directly for their yp which would not have had the same uni support/guarantees.

My DS picked a lower ranking uni, despite having good A level grades, because of a particular USP. Unfortunately the USP has had to be scaled back due to budget cuts after they failed to fill lots of courses.

In doing online research for clearing, I have found a lot of courses with a disclaimer about modules not being guaranteed, depending on academic requirements and demand etc.

(DS1 doesn’t want anything in particular so I’ve just seen these in passing)

I think they all have some kind of disclaimer, as modules are dictated by the experience of their lecturers and they can't obviously guarantee their staff retention . But when it's the uni's promoted USP at the open days and the module changes are many and will fundamentally affect the degree a student will be getting, I'd say the uni is pushing the boundaries a bit.

@WombatChocolate The private schools really don’t do all this legwork! It’s far more laid back! These dc are the only ones who go to open days on their own and many parents are pretty laid back about university applications. Nowhere near the angst demonstrated on mn!

Oh well, there’s obviously a variation of experience.
The private schools here sell themselves at 6th Form on the full support service offered, including into ‘yr 14’ when students are having a year off and often doing a post qualification application round. Some Oxbridge candidates reapply and will still have access to school support sessions. But it’s not lots from parents. But parents can be very supportive if they choose of course. And supportive and clued up parents over results day, especially when Clearing is needed can make all the difference.

The 2 x dc I know who went to Exeter / Nottingham last year via clearing both had to go into private halls off campus

Nottingham offers campus halls to clearing students. They're very expensive, catered and the food has a reputation for being grim.

This is completely incorrect. Last year the on campus catered halls were largely sold out on results day and the available accommodation was mainly self catered with options for all budgets eg cheaper more basic at Broadgate park just off the main campus or luxury ensuite at Morris house or mid range at Notts 2. Catered halls weren’t for my dd but she was very happy in one of the self catering ensuite halls next to Jubilee campus. I didn’t look into the catered halls in detail but obviously they will cost more as food is included. They are also on beautiful parkland.

It’s also good to look at the accommodation situation for second year onwards when considering unis for clearing. Some places have the option of staying further years in halls and there is quite a difference in the price and availability of second year houses in student cities.

This is completely incorrect

Nope.

The campus is absolutely beautiful, I agree with you there.

@WombatChocolate The schools often give y14 support. Not a private school thing. Parents aren’t all clued up either in private schools but we aren’t London! I do think private school dc learn from each other regarding where to apply and which halls to apply for though. Some advice isn’t that great either! They might advertise all sorts of things but it’s only as good as the staff.

Sussex now released clearing grades

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/clearing/uk-clearing-places

Law CCC, from AAB. Madness!

Edit - although not surprising if Southampton have gone from AAA to BBB.

Maths is BCD - wow…

Do you think this (generally) is the new norm, until International students come back (if they ever do to the same levels as before)?

We were discussing up thread that the BBC have released stats which show that international applications are not actually much down and UK applications are up. If that's right, something else is going on, eg universities expanding courses to try to bring in more money. If those higher up the rankings expanding their profitable courses, that'll have knock on effect all the way down....

There’s some sector mutterings that results are up this year, so possibly more meeting their firm offer and therefore fewer in clearing - hence dropping of grades to even lower than last year.

DS's firm course (offer AAB) was in clearing for BBC until yesterday. Now changed to BBB.

Can anyone knowledgable about the sector interpret what that might mean re acceptance rates, if anything?

@NeedingCoffee This is like some huge Ponzi scheme! We keep loaning money to even more students and the universities keep taking it to stay afloat. There’s just no control over anything. This morning radio 5 was bleating on about how students need £20,000 a year to go to university. In whose dream is this realistic? We need caps to maintain high quality and a long hard look at ever expanding universities who are diluting quality and also what the jobs market is like. By all accounts poor. We, as a nation, are facing even more £billions of student loan debt. We need to make some changes to ensure grads have a decent future.

Anything in Clearing until Weds evening can’t be taken as definitely available to the masses of home A Level students receiving their grades on Thurs.
It is all in flux as unis decide which near/misses to firm, and work out how many insurance offers they will need to take . They will still be calculating the odds of how many firm candidates will upgrade and how many insurance candidates will translate into bums on seats. For less competitive unis, huge numbers can vanish on results day. Even at good unis students vanish to other places or decide to defer or not go to uni. But they can’t overfill too. So if a uni is increasing the grades needed in Clearing from those offered earlier, it could mean more students met their grades and they are confident they will turn up, or they are accepting more near misses as a way of filling and don’t want to take too many from Clearing.
Or it could mean those are the grades being taken for near misses. Exeter website says they treat offer holders fairly and will accept them first with the grades they will accept in Clearing. This is actually fair and transparent.
To be honest there’s no knowing exactly why it’s happening or what it means for current offer holders - but if you’re an offer holder and achieve those grades, you’d expect to be taken if the course is in Clesring. Maybe they thought they’d have to accept lower and now happily (for them) realise they won’t have to go quite so low.

The thing to remember too, is places don’t have to accept everyone or even anyone via clearing who meets those grades. At any point they can say they are full or change the requirements. Some places will have literally one or 2 places on the course or possibly not really intend to take people. Some put themselves in Clearing. speculatively to hope for candidates who far exceeded that clearing offer and over performed on expectations. It’s why some places like Durham ask Clearing applicants to wait a day or 2 for decisions. They want to pool their applicants and take the best. Few places have the luxury of this though.