Record 11,000 students get in via clearing

A RECORD number of sixth-formers have snapped up degree course places through clearing this year.

By midnight on Thursday the figure was 11,180 – a 6 per cent rise on last year and double the number in 2013.

The system is used primarily by those who missed out on their chosen university place if their grades are worse than expected.

But there has been an overall drop in applicants this year, leaving universities looking to fill more places than usual. As a result, admissions tutors have been aggressively competing to attract would-be undergraduates through clearing.

Even universities in the elite Russell Group are so keen to reach potential students that they are advertising their clearing places on Facebook, it emerged yesterday. King’s College London, Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham were all using the social media site as part of the clearing process.

UCL, which is one of the most prestigious in the group and does not enter clearing, is using Facebook to ask candidates to apply for places via ‘adjustment’ – a process which allows those with better grade than expected to ‘trade up’.

The number of students placed through adjustment rose by 34 per cent from 290 to 390 in a year. Experts have said that clearing this year is a ‘buyers’ market’ for would-be students.

Overall, 649,700 hopefuls had applied to start degree courses by the deadline of June 30, down around 4 per cent – or 25,190 – on last year.

The drop has been attributed to a decrease in the 18-year- old population, changes to nursing degree funding and EU students being put off by Brexit. In addition, the number of students eligible to be placed in clearing is down 12 per cent – around 18,000 people – compared to last year.

There is now also no cap on the number of students that universities can recruit, and many have been expanding to bring in extra revenue.

A Press Association survey, based on 148 universities, showed a total of 26,654 undergraduate courses were available in England yesterday.

A number of universities – including three in the Russell Group – have said they may lower their entry requirements to admit students in clearing.

Alan Smithers, professor of education at the University of Buckingham, said: ‘Clearing this year is a buyers’ market. Anyone with better grades than expected should aim for the top, because there is a good chance they will get in.’

Some 437,070 students had been accepted on university courses by the end of Thursday.

‘It’s a buyers’ market this year’