Cleared for take off

It doesn’t matter if your university options go a little awry. The UCAS Clearing system can help you get your career aspirations off the ground.

Applied for uni but it didn’t work out?

You didn’t receive any offers?
You declined all your offers (or missed the due date!)?
You didn’t get the grades?
The course you applied for changed and now you want to do something else?

If any of the above applies to you, don’t panic – all is not lost! You still have a good chance to go onto a higher education course at a college or uni. There could be any number of reasons why you have not been successful, but if you really want to go on, then Clearing may be the way forward for you.

Clearing is a service run by UCAS that helps match students without places to universities and colleges with vacancies on higher education courses. You will have to be willing to be flexible about the course you want to study and you will need to have reasonable exam results. Just because a course is not filled, does not mean the requirements will drop – sometimes they go up!

Clearing runs from mid-July through to September. The important date is 15th August 2013, which is A-level results day. You should have submitted your UCAS application by 15th January 2013, but if you missed that date get your application to UCAS before 30th June. UCAS will send it to your chosen universities and colleges. After 30th June all applications will automatically be entered into Clearing.

When you apply through UCAS, you will be using a system called Track. This is where you follow your applications and placement offers during the process. You need to check Track on the UCAS website to see if you are eligible to use Clearing. It is important that you check Track because UCAS will not send anything in the post to tell you!

There is a specific process for applying through Clearing. Go to www.ucas.com/students/nextsteps/clearing/todo to find out more.

It is very important that you deal with your Clearing application yourself. You must be available in person to deal with admission tutors and to make decisions. If you think you want or need to go through the Clearing process, make sure you are not away on holiday or working when your exam results come out. Your exam results go directly to UCAS and to the universities/colleges you have chosen. If you are doing an unusual type of qualification, it may be worth checking the UCAS list to make sure it’s there. If it’s not, you will be responsible for letting your chosen universities/colleges know your results. To check, go to www.ucas.com/students/results/examresults.

There’s an app for that!

From A-level results day you can also search for Clearing places through The Telegraph newspaper’s website. They also have an app! This offers live access to Clearing listings – you can keep tabs on updates on the go!

Here are just some Clearing opportunities…

Anglia Ruskin University
t.0845 271 3333
www.anglia.ac.uk/clearing

The University of Buckingham
t. +44 (0)1280 820313
www.buckingham.ac.uk/event/clearing-2014/

Goldsmiths, University of London
t. 020 7919 7500
www.gold.ac.uk/clearing

The Open University
t. 0845 450 5489
www.openuniversity.co.uk/degree

Dongbei University of Finance and Economics
t. +44 (0) 1273 665 277
http://www.intohigher.com/china/en-gb/campaign-pages/clearing-2013

Royal Agricultural University
t. 01285 889912
www.rau.ac.uk

University of Kent
t. 01227 827272
e. [email protected]
www.kent.ac.uk/clearing

Plymouth University
t. +44 (0)1752 585858
www.plymouth.ac.uk/clearing

University of St Mark & St John
t. 01752 636890
www.marjon.ac.uk

Writtle College
t. 01245 424250
www.writtle.ac.uk