A-level results day: students need to be ‘quick’ in clearing if they want to secure places at top universities

Students who miss their desired A-level grades will need to be “quick” in clearing if they want to secure a place at a top university, an admissions chief has said ahead of results day.

Clare Marchant, the head of UCAS, has warned competition for degree places will be tougher this summer than in recent years, amid a growth of 18-year-olds in the population and an increase in applications from international students. This means the “highly selective courses” could “go quite quickly”, so teenagers should have a plan ready should they wish to go through clearing.

Clearing is the process through which students who do not have a confirmed university place can be placed on courses where not all of the slots have been filled. People can opt for this process if the have missed their grades, if they did not initially receive or accept any offers, or if they decide at the last-minute that they no longer want to go to their chosen institution.

However, an analysis of clearing places advertised at Russell Group universities on Wednesday (9 August) - just over a week prior to results day - found that there were 2,021 courses available this year, down from 2,358 courses last year. Meanwhile, some Russell Group institutions, including UCL, Bristol, Durham, and Manchester, did not have any vacancies listed at all at present.

But, at universities across the country, there are currently more than 28,000 courses available in the online system - and more will pop up on results day itself. So UCAS has reassured students that there will still be a “wide range of opportunities” for those in clearing.

Commenting on what students should expect this results day, UCAS head Ms Marchant told PA: “It’s getting more competitive, which means places are filled up quicker and therefore there are slightly less in clearing.

“[Therefore], when it comes to results day on 17 August, I think a lot of those highly selective courses at highly selective institutions will go quite quickly. So certainly my advice to students, our advice at UCAS, is to be pretty quick off the mark if that’s what you’re looking for.”

She added that things will likely continue becoming more competitive year on year - “simply because the demographics of 18-year-olds are increasing”, and the UK is “still very internationally attractive.”

A spokesperson for the Russell Group said: “The confirmation from Ofqual that grade distributions will return to 2019 levels has given universities more confidence in making offers compared to last year, which may mean universities have less flexibility to offer courses in clearing in some subjects.

“However, most Russell Group universities have courses available in clearing this year, across a range of subjects, as they have done in past years and more courses will become available after results day.”

Sixth form students are due to receive their A-level results next Thursday (17 August), and many have been told to brace themselves for “disappointment” as the number of top grades are expected to fall.

It comes as exam officials attempt to bring results in line with pre-pandemic levels, after record numbers of A*s and As were achieved in 2020 and 2021. This happened when students were not able to sit exams ‘normally’ due to lockdown, and were instead given marks based on assessments by their teachers.

However, this does not mean students will not be receiving good grades - it simply means that less of the top grades will be handed out across the cohort. And Ofqual, the exams regulator, has told boards to “err on the side of generosity” if standards are slightly lower than in the last year before Covid.

The school minister Nick Gibb recently insisted that returning to ‘normal’ grades is necessary so that students’ qualifications carry “weight and credibility” with employers and universities. But other education experts, such as Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), has said this cohort, which received teacher assessment for GCSEs, and future ones, should still receive leniency as their education was “still disrupted by the pandemic”.

Ms Marchant added: “A lot of people I talk to, it feels like Covid-19 was a long, long time ago. But this is still the tail of [the pandemic] really because these students haven’t sat external exams before - and I think that we need to be very cognisant of that in sort of making sure we have really good support”.

Students in Scotland received their exam results on Tuesday (8 August). The overall pass rate fell when compared to 2020, 2021, and 2022, but it remains higher than the last year before the pandemic - 2019. It is expected that a similar trend will be observed in England.