Produced by Guest blogger
Clearing is being made easier than ever with the new, personalised system, Clearing Plus.
Previously, Clearing meant that you had to search through listings of courses and then contact each university to talk through your options. With 30,000 courses to choose from, this can understandably be a bit overwhelming.
With Clearing Plus, UCAS are hoping this process will be a whole lot less stressful! UCAS will use the system to match you with courses you may be interested in based on your application as well as information it has from universities about the type of students they are looking for.
For example, if a university has spaces on their BA (Hons) English course and were looking for students with 104 – 120 UCAS points, if you have applied for English courses and meet the entry requirements, you’ll probably see this university’s course pop up in your recommendations.
It’s basically a match-making service for students and their future university course!
How does it work?
Once you’ve entered Clearing, a new button in UCAS Track will pop up asking if you would like to “View Matches”.
If you’re thinking “yes please”, then click through to find a whole list of available courses that UCAS thinks you would like.
If you find a course you like, all you need to do is click the button by that course saying “I’m interested”.
The university will then be notified of your interest and may get in touch with you to discuss your application further if there are still spaces available. From this, you might get an offer (yay!).
If you are successful in getting an offer, then you will add this as a Clearing choice in UCAS so it can be confirmed.
Then you can start getting excited to start uni in September!
Who can use Clearing Plus?
Anyone who doesn’t have a firm place can take advantage of Clearing Plus. This would be you if:
- you didn’t like any of your offers
- you haven’t received any offers
- your calculated grades miss your offers
- your grades are higher than predicted, so you want to take advantage of courses with higher entry requirements
- you’ve changed your mind and want to see what else is out there
If you already have a firm offer you won’t have access to Clearing Plus. To see options in Clearing Plus, you would need to give up your firm choice and enter clearing.
Ultimately, Clearing Plus is going to help your decision in picking a course as it will show you which courses are available that match your preferences. But remember, you know yourself better than a UCAS algorithm, so stay true to yourself and trust you know you’ll make the right decision about where to study in September – whether that is at BU, another UK university or across the world.
Good luck and if you want to talk to us about courses at BU, just get in touch!