Our Clearing & Adjustment round-up

• 2018 delivered a record number of students being accepted through Clearing
• 6% more students than in 2017 applied directly into Clearing
• Clearing was the most competitive it’s ever been – with the UK demographic dip and 16 of the 24 Russell Group universities having entered Clearing 2018 giving students more choice
• Student sentiment tracker – we took the time to measure our users feelings towards Results Day and Clearing and found that there were a lot more negative sentiments this year compared to 2017. This could be down to the A-level reform and calls for more universities to offer support and guidance throughout their revision, exams and results journey
• With the increase in unconditional offers this year, our Community Team noticed the relative rise of students wanting to get out of their unconditional offers as we went through the run-up to Results Day

Sources:  UCAS/DataHE/Telegraph Education/Guardian Education

Our predictions for Clearing 2019 

“Clearing 2019 looks likely to be another record year. With a further dip in the number of UK 18 year olds and concerns over Brexit internationally there is likely to be intense competition for students, with more Russell Group universities and high-demand courses using Clearing to recruit.

At the same time, student awareness of the potential of Clearing is growing and more will be applying directly through this route.

Other factors that may boost demand for Clearing include students achieving grades out of line with teacher predictions as the decline of AS levels removes a key benchmark for grade estimation, and the potential use of Clearing to escape unconditional offers that have come to be seen as less attractive.”

– Pete Langley, Study Help Director