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?

Maybe in case people want to trade up if they've done better than expected.

Oh yes, Engineering is great. I work at Southampton and it is a very good university, not as beautiful as Bristol however cheaper to live here, less congestion and the campus is lovely. Good choice.

You can contact the Unis from 8am, they give verbal offers of a place which is confirmed by email. You can get offers from a number of unis then decide on the one you want then add this to UCAS from 1pm

Durham has big notice on homepage that UK clearing is closed.

Clearing - Durham University

"Please note that due to high demand, all our Clearing course vacancies for UK students have now been filled.
If you're an international student and have found a course vacancy you want to apply for, please fill in the Clearing application form below, or call our Clearing hotline."

This is so those who did better than expected can trade up.

Sorry I did not see your reply before posting

@crazycrofter

Did your son make a decision on where he wanted to go?

Southampton is a bit of a funny one this year. My ds is applying for History next year so I have been keeping an eye on clearing. History was BBC last year in clearing and CCD this year. Seems very low.

Anecdata re Bristol. I met upwards of 7 students today holding offers for Bristol who fell ( in some cases well) below and still got their place.

Wow - what subject was that for? Interesting as they haven't adjusted their grades in clearing

A range of subjects tbh, mainly in the hums/ arts area.

Good to know - thanks for sharing :)

Acceptances at higher tariff unis soar.

https://bsky.app/profile/smfthinktank.bsky.social/post/3lwe5dtza5k27

I guess that explains the Bristol observation?

@HPFA so he didn’t get PPE at Loughborough- they wanted BBB and he got BBC. He got Lancaster (they wanted BCC!) but he didn’t like it when he visited. None of the other RG/plus unis would accept him for PPE, but he’s got Politics and Int Relations offers to choose from - Nottingham, Southampton and Liverpool. He has to decide by the end of tomorrow and I think he’s narrowed it down to Southampton vs Nottingham.

Interestingly, Nottingham’s clearing requirements were much higher this year than last - there was Politics &Economics at CCC last year compared to AAA today. Ds’ friend missed his offer for Industrial Economics at Nottingham (he retook his A Levels this year) with BBD and still got in, but they were advertising BBB in clearing. So clearly unis are preferring to accept dropped grades than go into clearing.

@HPFA Can they house them all? Is this just replacing international students?

A question being asked by angry academics at the lower tariff universities.

Good to have choices. The politics course with the quant looked really interesting.

And fairly, I think. I’ve seen a report showing how the % of students at high tariff unis is increasing, at the expense of low tariff unis. I don’t think it is possible to make a credible case that this is because students are getting more intelligent; bolstering finances seems to be the most plausible explanation.

Whilst I think some degree programmes may be questionable, whether the sector is too large and what should be done about it should be decided by rational analysis. This raid isn’t right.

@poetryandwine Quite obviously this situation needs looking at. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is disastrous all round. We need to reconsider what a university education is supposed to be and be clear about what it isn’t. The degrees are not trusted and that’s not fair on students. Students get a weakened product and feel aggrieved at the cost. How many universities are now struggling financially as a result of this? I would bring back the cap on numbers and then applicants would cascade down again. 12 years of unfettered growth has been disastrous.

What does it mean for the experience of those at the higher tariff universities who are taking in so many more students? On the one hand they are at least maintaining some financial stability, but with the same level of teaching staff presumably (as that is the point) what are the implications for the quality of the education?
The whole thing again seems to benefit the kids who get offers on the basis of predictions they don’t meet, rather than those who take the two years to develop. Both end up with the same results but the former gets the “better” uni as they’ve got the offer, even though they haven’t met it. The question I have though now - is it actually “better”?

One of the "angry academics" on Bluesky was asked if it wasn't good that more students were getting into better unis. And his reply was "whats good about a seminar with 60 students?"

I notice that Reading is offering most courses at CCD or equivalent but is still requiring a B in Maths for the Maths degree. Which I think shows some integrity -they've probably decided that anything else is unfair on the student.

the high tariff unis will now have graduated their Covid bulge years. I wonder if they're thinking "well we managed to take on X% more than capacity once, we can do it again". The Covid years lead to second year accommodation chaos in places like Bath and Durham (and I'm sure many others). It'll be interesting to see if that happens again.

Excellent points, all.

I agree with almost everything @TizerorFizz says, only wondering about the most constructive way to discontinue dubious degree programmes and encourage YP to pursue alternative pathways more useful for many. I always return to the fact that a degree - any degree - is seen by so many (rightly or wrongly) as a ticket to the middle class. Capping places could be seen as denying the opportunity for success (wrongly in my view, but still …) and class advancement important to many. That would be socially divisive.

A complementary concern to those brought ip by @Rumplestiltz is of whether sqyeaking into a Clearing spot is really in a student’s best interests. If you messed up your exams because of a discrete life crisis your grades may misrepresent your knowledge. Otherwise, whatever the reason, I think most are better off with students whose grades are similar to their own. The few exceptions are a joy, but I am not sure their numbers warrant the Clearing offers we see.

Good for Reading Maths

Simon Jenkins has a good Opinion piece on the misuse of universities, the need to cull and the broken funding model currently in the Guardian online