Hear Andrea's experience of helping her daughter go through Clearing.
Updated: 18 Mar 2025
Hi, my name is Andrea.
My daughter is at Nottingham Trent University studying mathematics, and the course includes a one year placement in industry. My daughter chose to go through Clearing because she missed the grades she needed to go on her chosen university course. So we certainly had doubts at the start of the Clearing process. It was a path that we hadn’t really given much thought to, yet suddenly here we were trying to find the right course in the right location. So it certainly did seem quite daunting.
So in terms of the Clearing process itself, really that was quite straightforward in that the universities were well prepared. The phone lines were manned bright and early and when we got to it there really was a wide selection of courses available. In fact there were many courses that we hadn’t even given much thought to or we hadn’t even previously known existed. And it also has to be said that the teams who were manning the phones, they themselves were also very helpful and also very knowledgeable. As for challenges that going through Clearing might present, I would say it’s about remaining flexible and open minded not just in considering new and different courses but also different study locations. For us, Clearing was actually quite liberating in that my daughter ended up joining a degree course which included a one year placement in industry. And this was definitely something we hadn’t previously considered.
So advice for other parents who may find themselves supporting their child going through Clearing would be to say well you know be prepared for quite an emotional time. There’s going to be lots of discussions to be had, lots of decisions to be made, it’s going to be quite fast paced but also you want your child to make this decision, it’s got to be their decision and you want them ultimately to have ownership of the course that they finally decide to embark upon because they’re the ones who are going to be spending the next three or possibly four years pursuing this course of study.
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