Eight easy steps to make the clearing process clearer for your students…
Results day is always stressful, but for those who have to go through the process of clearing and make snap decisions about their futures, it’s even harder. Encouraging your students to do some pre-prep can be a wise investment…
Each year hundreds of thousands of students gain their first or second choice university places. But each year, tens of thousands don’t, and in 2020, 70,000 applicants were accepted onto university courses through the UCAS clearing process.
The learning process can feel pressurised with decisions needed to be made. But the implications of the decisions made on results day determine the rest of your student’s life. So it’s worth stressing to your students that preparing for the clearing process – even if they think they’re going to get the grades they need - is a wise time investment:
Eight ways to prepare for clearing
- On results day itself and for 48 hours after – your students can WhatsApp or text our dedicated careers and progression guidance experts 07828 910 530 – to get free, tailored advice on alternative options still open to them
- They can turn to our free online chat service on Get Career Confident website here at any time – to get free one-to-one advice and guidance on next steps from our dedicated careers guidance experts
- Check out our Get Career Confident ‘How To’ videos where you can find two videos on successfully negotiating the process: ‘Applying late to university through clearing’ and ‘What to do if you don’t get the grades for university’
- Get familiar with the clearing system before results day. UCAS start publishing courses that still have places on them from July. So your students can check out the clearing site well in advance of results day, to get a feel for the kinds of courses with spaces still available, and which they might consider
- Encourage students to broaden their course search. In many cases students who miss out on the grades for their first choice course, can, with small tweaks, discover similar courses that still have availability, allowing them to still study something that will get them into the field they’re passionate about
- Draw up a shortlist: Clearing officially opens at 3pm on results day, but it’s worth stressing to students that they don’t want to be making decisions from scratch in a matter of hours. Drawing up a shortlist of back up universities and courses can make the clearing process much less stressful. Even if they haven’t got the chance to visit universities, most now have great virtual open days they can check out
- Consider other options: Remind students that university and clearing aren’t the only options open to them. It might be the time to start considering other options like degree or higher apprenticeships, work experience or taking a year out to reassess
- Be ready to pounce! On the day itself the most coveted places get snapped up quickly, so encourage your students to be well prepared for the mini interviews they might have on the day. They need to have their GCSE and A level results to hand, they should remind themselves of what they wrote in their personal statement and it’s worth having a list of questions for universities to hand too
Clearing is definitely no-one’s preferred option. With careful preparation learning can result in a happy and successful outcome...