If you aren’t accepted into your first choice uni on results day, it’s easy to panic and feel like you’ll never get onto the right course for you. You might’ve realised that your insurance choice isn’t for you, or you may find yourself in a position of having not a confirmed place at uni. No matter what your situation is, try to stay calm because Clearing offers a great opportunity to secure a place on a whole range of courses. Our step-by-step guide will take you through the Clearing process and help you secure a place on a course you’ll love this September.
We've got loads of handy Clearing articles and more on our Clearing Hub. Browse unis across the UK, find courses with open Clearing spaces, and get advice on your next steps in Clearing.
Clearing is sometimes seen as a negative thing by students, but there are lots of reasons to use Clearing and once you’re at uni nobody would know you secured your place during Clearing unless you choose to tell them.
Loads of students go through Clearing every year – for example, almost 68,000 students used Clearing in 2023! No matter if you missed out on the grades you needed or you're looking to trade-up, it's an opportunity to consider universities and courses you might not have considered before. You won't believe how many students end up saying that Clearing was a positive thing because of how it changed the course of their education career and how many friends they made as a result.
NEXT: Check out Afia’s Clearing success story.
This is by far the most important step. Ideally, you’ve done a bit of research before results day to see what courses are available in Clearing and get an idea of which ones you might be interested in. If you’ve not started researching yet, it’s okay. Get hunting right now and see what courses are out there.
Now you’ve done some research and you know which courses you’re interested in, put together your shortlist. Rank these in order of preference, because you want to be reaching out to your first choice university first. Using Whatuni, you can easily save courses to your favourites to help you manage your shortlist.
Now you know what you first choice course is – get calling! You can call universities through Whatuni, making the process super simple. Just hit that ‘call now’ button and wait to be put through to one of the university’s advisers. Make sure you’ve got all your details to hand like your UCAS number, your grades, and be ready to tell them why you’re applying to the course. Sounding enthusiastic about the course you’re calling to apply to can never hurt!
Unis may give you a verbal offer over the phone, or they may direct you to fill out an application online. Whichever method the university uses, once you’ve received a verbal offer or an offer as a result of your online application, you can add the course to your UCAS Hub. You’ll usually have a couple of days from the uni making the offer to add it to UCAS, so make sure to take your time and have a think before you commit. They should tell you when they make you an offer how long you have to accept it and how to do so.
In an ideal world, the uni you’ve got an offer from has a Clearing open day for you to check out the campus. If they don’t have any events or if you can’t attend them, then it’s always worth checking out what vlogs and videos the uni has on their website to get an idea of what the campus and local area are like.
NEXT: Find and book open days.
If you’ve not already, make sure to add your chosen course to your UCAS Hub before the offer expires. The university should confirm your place fairly quickly, and then you can take a deep breath, relax and celebrate. You’ve earned it!
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