UCAS Extra - are we searching the right way?

[Whenthemorningcomes]

DD is looking at courses on UCAS Extra. What is confusing us is that several very popular courses at typically oversubscribed universities appear to be available. Are we looking in the wrong place? Is there a filter on the search we are missing? Do some unis just keep everything listed?

Set filters in the search tool.

Click on the actual course and scroll right down through the details.

I played around with specifying 'Law' with a tariff point minimum of 136 (AAB equivalent) and most courses I looked at seemed to be taking applications, including some quite 'desirable' universities.

I then ditched Law, kept the minimum tariff points, and asked for 'London School of Economics', then 'Imperial College London' as specific institutions and every one of the sample of courses for LSE had this message:

This course is not accepting applications at this time. Please contact the provider to find out more.

(As did the one I looked at at Imperial- Aeronautical Engineering).

Ah! Thank you, that could be it.

The specific ones she was interested in earlier seem to have disappeared, others have some restrictions (e.g. physics at Edinburgh seems to say no longer accepting applications from NI and ROI).

It is not actually physics she’s looking at - just an example - but I would have thought physics at Edinburgh would fill up quickly!

https://www.ucas.com/explore/courses/276c1cac-9ca7-ba30-a595-14ac69732cdf/physics?studyYear=2026

I also hadn’t realised that it was all publicly available. I assumed visibility of what’s available on Extra was restricted to only students who have no offers.

I think it also depends how good the university and school is at updating its position. Admissions tutors like @poetryandwine might be able to shed more light.