First Look at Clearing Availability Before Results Day

[TakeMeDancing]

Clearing—I’m new to this. As I understood it, universities were posting their clearing courses with spaces today. I can see that Exeter, Liverpool, and Southampton put in lower grade requirements, which is what I thought everyone would do.

York, Leicester, Lancaster, and Birmingham listed the courses with spaces, but the original grades still stand. Will individual students need to enquire on results day what the new minimum requirements are, or will the universities update the minimum grades for everyone to see on results day?

Leeds has no business courses with spaces for domestic students—they are, however, listed as available for international students to apply for. At 3x the tuition fees. Cheeky.

sigh

the govt limit how many home students each course/uni can take and once that cap is reached that is that (the can be fined and lose money for going over). It’s not cheeky, it’s the funding model

expect on results day amended grades published once the unis know how many offer holders made their places so how many the need to still fill. Use UCAS tool to see average actual grades of students rather than average offers made, helps see how much they drop for ‘Clearing’

@TakeMeDancingits not cheeky. They need the money! There’s a certain amount of spaces for domestic students and a separate amount for international. It’s not like an international student is taking a spot away from a home student. Even if they don’t fill all the international spaces it doesn’t then go to a home student.

So if there are 5 spaces left on a course marked for international applicants and nobody bites, the uni will leave those spaces empty, rather than take the £10k in tuition from 5 domestic students?

@TakeMeDancing jeez - as above the uni will be fined if they go over their Home numbers.

The Govt tops up tuition fees to cover (some of) the actual cost of educating students, the tuition fees aren’t enough. So if the uni goes over they won’t receive this ‘top up’ so they will be down money, and then they can be fined extra money for going over their numbers.

@LovelyDonkey in my first sentence I literally said that I was new to all of this, yet your first comment to me was “sigh”. Perhaps you should get out and touch some grass, rather than scolding those who have come on here to ask genuine questions.

I also find it confusing. Looking at the Complete university guide website, it says Bristol is in clearing for DC's subject with 128 UCAS points (ABB) for a course which usually asks for AAA. It doesn't say if this is for international students only. When I go to the actual university website, and also UCAS, it says the course is in clearing but doesn't tell you the grade. I expect they are still working it out as It's the first day of clearing today and hopefully it will become clearer nearer the time.

@TakeMeDancing I explained in my first post that unis can’t go over numbers yet you doubled down.

As someone who has experience on both sides my best bit of advice would be for your child to be doing this, it has to come from them. Ask them what they do /don’t know/want to do. And use the UCAS tool I mentioned as that will help you understand what they’ve actually accepted rather than published offers.

I’m not interested in your input, as I don’t believe that you’re engaging in this post in good faith, thank you.

Your loss. Nearly 30 years working in Admissions for a top RG uni plus going through Clearing with my own child last year but yes , not in good faith.

Good luck to your child whatever they decide.

My understanding was that the government had removed the caps. Is that not the case?

You might have had a point about Lovely Donkey saying sigh, if you hadn’t responded to her post saying if they filled posts with home students they would be fined with a follow up question about why they wouldn’t take home students.
This question deserves a sigh.

You say you're coming to this open minded, with a lack of knowledge on the subject - but in your opening post brand universities as 'cheeky'. Despite you not knowing much about it.

I work for a Scottish university, where there is a government imposed cap on home (Scottish) students. No cap on students from the rest of the UK As far as I know, there are no caps at English universities. That’s why places are going through clearing that would not have been in years gone by.

There are no caps, but UK unis will have worked out how many home students paying home fees and international students paying higher fees they need. So yes they probably would leave them empty.

Unis don’t necessarily stop grades in clearing. They need to fill spaces - if it the case that they think they can fill the spaces with students at higher grades they won’t drop them.

They also might drop them closer to the time

I had no idea this was a thing! Ds doing a levels next year but I’m going to have a look to see clearing availability and difference in grades just as a guide. Thank you all!

If you look the night before results day in previous years there have been many more clearing places with dropped grades

It’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with clearing: https://www.whatuni.com/advice/parents/a-parents-guide-to-clearing/72410/

Elder DD sat her A levels in 2023 where there was serious downward pressure on results. Lots of her friends went through clearing. After initial disappointment and stress on results day, all her friends ended up on great courses at great unis. The stress of results day was soon forgotten. My younger DD’s firm offer matched her predicted grades and she had changed her mind about her insurance (due to the course) so we started studying clearing about 2 weeks before results day. We found some excellent courses there and noted down the details in case of need. In the end, she got what she needed but it was reassuring and quite inspiring to see what was available in clearing.

Well worth watching especially on results day as things move quickly and make notes. It was helpful.

Yes thanks, I will do! Good info for next year!!

I watched yr12. My DD’s insurance choice was AAA so not much wiggle room but I knew from my research there were likely to be some good options in clearing if she got lower. Things no guarantee but same unis have been in clearing for my DD’s course 23.24.25.
She got her firm so my research wasn’t needed but knowing more about clearing made me feel much more in control.

I bloody hope you don’t work in admissions - we haven’t had number controls for 10 years.

OP - they’ll all have vacancies right now, based on assumptions around how many firm and insurance acceptances they’ll get, and how many of those turn up on day one. Once they get the results (6 days before students get them) they’ll make decisions and often still offer to applicants who have accepted but dropped a grade (or two or three…). Then they assess whether to go into clearing to fill the last few places at their current offer, or fill many spare places with a dropped offer.

And yes. International and home internal targets are two separate things.

Actually Scotland does, so if you’re at one of the two Scottish RGs, apologies

IB grades are Monday.
As the summer moves on keep an eye and then seriously look a day or two before and on results day keep checking as things move quickly.
Not all unis drop grades in clearing. Some very well ranked unis may stick at AAA etc knowing they’ll pick up top quality candidates to fill last few places.
Eg my DD’s friend missed his Cambridge offer with AAA as he needed A in the specific subject and he got A. He obviously was able to pick up a Durham type uni in clearing.