Advice for A Level Results Day and Clearing

If your place at university is based on you meeting the requirements of your conditional offer, then from 8.15am on A-level Results Day (Thursday, August 18) you can check your UCAS application status to see what the situation is. If you’ve got the place, your application status will show that you’ve been firmly accepted – it’ll state whether the place is at your firm or insurance choice university as well as show which course you’ve been accepted onto. 

Don’t panic! If you didn’t get the grades you were hoping for and didn’t manage to get into your Firm or Insurance Choice, don’t worry - you’ll be automatically placed into Clearing. Your application status will say that you’re in Clearing and provide your Clearing number. You’ll then be able to start looking for a Clearing place. The UCAS website will show which courses have Clearing places available and you should contact the university/universities concerned to discuss your options. Don’t select a university as your Clearing choice before speaking to the university first.

Once you’re in Clearing, you should contact universities to discuss your options. The course search on the UCAS website will show which courses have Clearing places available, and most universities will provide information about courses available through Clearing on their own websites. You may want to consider courses that are different to those you originally applied for, and you may need to consider different universities to those you’d originally shortlisted.

When you contact an individual university, make sure you have the relevant information to hand, including your UCAS personal ID number, Clearing number, email address and contact phone number/s. You’ll also be asked for your A level results, or equivalent qualifications such as BTECs, as well as any relevant GCSE results. 

If a university offers you a place through Clearing, you can accept that offer by selecting that university as your Clearing Choice. You can contact as many universities as you like to ask about places on courses, but you can only accept one Clearing offer. 

So, if more than one university makes you a Clearing offer on the phone/by email, you will need to consider which is the best option for you.  You don’t want to rush your decision – look at the university website, or phone back for a follow-up chat if you forgot to ask about opportunities to visit, what’s the accommodation for Clearing applicants, etc. 

Once you’ve decided on which Clearing offer you want to accept, you need to go to the ‘Your choices’ section of your UCAS application and click on ‘Add Clearing choice’. You should only add a university as your Clearing choice if you’ve already spoken to them and they’ve made it clear that they’re able to offer you a Clearing place on the course discussed. 

If that’s the case and you know which course and university you want to enter through Clearing, then click on ‘Add Clearing choice’. You’ll then need to add details of the course (make sure you have the correct title and course code) as well as the University’s name and UCAS code. 

Remember, you can only add one Clearing choice at a time and adding a specific course and university counts as you definitely accepting that Clearing offer. So, if the university then confirm the place, it’ll show as an acceptance on your ‘choices’ page in your UCAS application.

However, if the university doesn’t confirm that Clearing place then you’ll be able to add another Clearing choice.