Clearing - What to Do? Tips and Advice

The service matches unplaced higher education candidates with suitable vacancies at universities and colleges. If you're eligible, UCAS will send you details automatically.

This is your last opportunity to gain a place on a university or college course, starting the autumn after your exams finish. It isn't the mad, midsummer scramble it's made out to be though, so don't panic. In fact, it's a well-organised, efficient system run by friendly people who find university and college places for more than 50,000 people every year.

Yes, you might have to be flexible and patient but most students find that by the start of term places are secured and the future looks bright.

Tony Higgins, Chief Executive at UCAS, is encouraging: "If you are flexible and have reasonably good exam results, your chances of getting in to higher education are excellent."

But even if you do find yourself with no university place, you might not need to go through clearing at all. Follow the guide below, which gives step-by-step instructions on how to find a place.

1. If you narrowly missed the required grades for your firm place, telephone the university, ask to speak to an admissions tutor and see if they will still take you. If General Studies was not part of the original offer, it may be useful to mention this qualification if you did well. Sound enthusiastic and have your UCAS candidate number handy to quote in all discussions.

2. If you failed to gain your firm place and also missed the grades for your insurance place, then contact the insurance institution and see if they will take you even though you have lower grades than originally specified.

3. Only consider clearing if you're sure that you haven't been given a place already. The institutions you applied to have invested a lot of time in you before making firm or insurance offers and they might well prefer you to a 'stranger' taken from the clearing system.

4. If you do need to use clearing, look carefully at all the clearing listings in the press and DON'T PANIC!

5. Find a course that you'd like (not necessarily the same as the ones you've already applied for) and make sure you have the A level points specified.

6. Telephone the institution with your candidate number handy and explain why you would like the place. Offer, if necessary, to fax/post your CV or attend an interview (though interviews are rare at this stage).

7. You can telephone as many places as you want, but remember you can only send your CEF number to one institution at a time (see below for more information on your Clearing Entry Form) so make sure that when you commit yourself you've chosen a course you really want to do in a location you are prepared to live in for many years.

8. And finally... remember universities are there to help you. When they advertise courses through clearing they need to fill their places, so shop around and don't be panicked into taking a course that you wouldn't otherwise have considered.

Follow the link for Frequently Asked Questions about clearing.

Follow the link for a step-by-step guide on Filling out your Clearing Entry Form (CEF)