Preparing for University Clearing: Essential Checklist and Tips

Clearing is a unique opportunity for students. It can be stressful, but with careful planning and preparation, you can increase your chances of finding a suitable place through Clearing.

A checklist could be everything you need. This checklist will serve as a comprehensive guide to help you stay organised, focused, and well-prepared throughout the clearing process.

What is Clearing?

Clearing is the process that matches students with courses that still need to be filled. The process used to have an accompanying service called Adjustment, which allowed students with better grades than they were predicted to look for other courses. However, these two processes are now found under Clearing.

Previously, Clearing was for students who had achieved worse grades than expected. However, now any student who wishes to find a different course to the one they initially applied to will now enter Clearing.

Clearing officially opens on Wednesday, the 5th of July 2023. Clearing will officially close on Tuesday, the 17th of October, 2023.

What is Clearing Plus?

Clearing Plus is a new system introduced by UCAS. Clearing Plus is a tool that helps students find more personalised Clearing courses based on their previous selections.

Clearing Plus is a bit like the algorithm Spotify uses to suggest new artists to you. The tool finds courses that are currently unfilled, matches them with your previous choices, and then suggests them to you based on your selection criteria, which can then be viewed in your own UCAS Hub.

When is Clearing in 2023?

Clearing officially opens on Wednesday, the 5th of July 2023. Clearing will officially close on Tuesday, the 17th of October, 2023.

The day that Clearing officially opens is also the day that results are released for the International Baccalaureate. This means that international students can immediately enter Clearing, while UK students will need to wait until they receive their A-Level, T-Level and BTEC results.

Preparing for Clearing is a lot easier than you think.

What is the UCAS Clearing embargo?

Every year, UCAS, universities and colleges are all given early access to student’s results. Viewing these results is restricted by a very strict embargo agreement with the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

Effectively, this allows universities to see your results before you do. This allows the university to begin preparing its offers for students before the student actually receives them.

Your checklist

On results day, you should have the following:

• A charged mobile phone.
• Any previous offer letters.
• Clearing number from UCAS Hub.
• Computer or laptop.
• Paper/pad.
• Pen.
• Printer.
• UCAS application number.
• UCAS contact number (just in case).
• UCAS number.
• Your personal statement.
• Your results.

You’d be surprised just how few students know their grades off-hand. Make sure you know your grades.

How to prepare for Clearing

Preparing for Clearing is a lot easier than you think. Of course, you will be doing plenty of calling on the day, but you will also need to be doing copious amounts of note-taking and you will be speaking to a lot of universities.

The key to being prepared for Clearing is having all of the above ready. Universities will be as helpful as possible (remember, they want you to study with them) and will provide you with all the information you need to make your choice.

Don’t feel too pressured, either. You do not necessarily need to make your decision right there, and then you can take some time to mull things over and collect your thoughts.

Have your alternatives ready

Having alternatives can be a big help. These alternatives, or back-ups, are there to provide you with a fallback in case your initial choice doesn’t pan out, the same way you have insurance choices when making your initial selection.

Make a note of all the universities you plan to speak to that day. That way, you can call your backups and have them ready if your first choice falls through. Who knows, you may even find that your alternative intrigues you more than your first choice.

Know your grades

You’d be surprised just how few students know their grades off-hand. Make sure you know your grades.

Universities will usually have access to your grades. If they don’t, or if they wish to query one of them (this is a common Clearing call question), make sure you have them to hand.

Universities may also want to know your GCSE results too. This is rare, but some may ask all the same, especially for specific courses, like science-based subjects.

Record your calls

You don’t need to be Richard Nixon to figure out how to record a call. This is just for your own records and generally favours students who struggle with note-taking compared to those who are more adept.

This also ensures that you don’t miss anything. We all miss things when we’re writing down what we hear, so recording your calls may be easier than you think. Use the Voicenotes app, or simply use a recording programme on your laptop and put the call on speakerphone.

It might be best to tell the person on the other end that that’s what you’re doing first, though. Not all people like being recorded, so explain the situation beforehand.

Clearing is the process that matches students with courses that still need to be filled.

Have your questions ready

It’s always best to know which questions you really want to ask. Make a note of the questions you want to know, just in case you forget.

Some questions we recommend are:

• Can the university help Clearing students with finding accommodation in September?
• What are my chances of getting a place in student halls?
• How is the course assessed?
• How is the course taught?
• Is the course still taught the same in the second and third year?
• What financial support does the university offer?
• What do students who have graduated from the course go on to do?
• Does the university have any connections to employers in this area?

Don’t be shy to ask anything you want to know. Better to ask a question and have an exact answer rather than guessing the answer and being wrong.