UCAS Extra and Clearing: A failsafe for the unexpected

Feb 12

Sometimes, the UCAS system might seem a bit clunky and a bit restrictive, and for many students it seems a bit complicated. Believe it or not, it’s been operating in broadly the same way for 60 years, gradually moving from a paper-based system (originally using punch-card technology!) through to the online process we see today.

But in the main, it seems to work for most people, with some 384,000 students ending up at their firm or insurance choices last year.

Yet each year, there are a whole bunch of students who the main process doesn’t quite work properly for. That’s where UCAS Extra and Clearing come in; to provide you with a failsafe for when the unexpected happens. In fact, last year just over 5,000 students found their course through UCAS Extra, and a massive 75,000 secured their place through Clearing.

You might not plan on using either of these, but trust me, it's well worth spending the next five minutes reading all about them, so that you have that failsafe ready, should you need it!

UCAS Extra

UCAS Extra opens on February 28th this year (and it closes on 30th June, after which Clearing opens).

It’s designed for you if:

You didn’t get any offers through your initial five choices OR
You have changed your mind about your choices, and want to go somewhere different, or study something different.

With Extra you basically get to choose one university to apply to at a time, until you are successful.

The Extra process

In order for you to use Extra, you need to have no offers outstanding. So if you are holding offers that you definitely no longer want, you need to decline these first. Then you’ll be eligible for Extra.

To apply for a new course, you should first check that the course is open for applications (use the UCAS search tool to check for ‘courses with vacancies’). Then contact the university and check whether they are likely to consider you. If they say yes, add the choice to your application.

You then need to allow the university up to 21 days to make a decision.

If you receive an offer that you like, you can accept it.
If you receive an offer you don’t like (e.g. one with conditions that are too high), you can decline it and move on.
If you don’t receive an offer, you can decide to wait a bit longer, or move on.
And of course, if you receive a rejection, you need to move on too.

Moving on, means starting the Extra process again with a different course.

Is Extra really for you?

First up, if you simply didn’t get any offers the first time around, then Extra is definitely for you. To make sure the same thing doesn’t happen again, this is the opportunity to take a deep breath, look again at your choices, and have some renewed conversations with trusted advisers and family. Once you are ready, you can make a start.

Alternatively, if this is a decision by you to change your mind, either about your subject choice, or your choice of university, then taking that deep breath, pausing, and speaking to trusted advisers is even more important.

Going through Extra means letting go of all your current offers. So it’s not something to do lightly. There may be another way to get where you want to be, and if you feel you’ve made one mistake already, the last thing you want to do is follow it up with another. If you are feeling under pressure to make a decision that you are not sure about, always take enough time to make a good decision. If that means taking a year out, that’s OK.

Alternatives to Extra

If it’s a change of subject you want, but you are happy with your choice of universities, then instead of using Extra, you can simply contact the universities where you already have an offer, and ask if they will change the offer to another subject. Some universities will do this very straightforwardly, while others may ask you to write a new Personal Statement for them. Either way, it's simpler and less risky than Extra.

Also note that if you didn’t use all five choices straight away, you don’t need to use Extra; just add an additional choice to your form.

UCAS Clearing

A week after UCAS Extra closes, on 5th July this year, Clearing opens and it runs until 21st October. It’s there for you if you haven’t yet secured your place, for whatever reason.

Perhaps you didn’t get any offers? Perhaps you got offers, but didn’t meet the grades you needed? Or perhaps you have had a change of heart, or a change of circumstances and want to change your choice. Perhaps you didn’t apply at all, and want to make a late application?

Whatever your circumstance, clearing is the failsafe to help you find your place.

The main difference with Clearing is that you’ll need to have your school grades already achieved. Universities aren’t allowed to make a conditional offer through Clearing, so you’ll have to wait until the results day of whichever exams you have taken. Once you have these, you are ready to go.

The other main difference is that not every course will be open in Clearing. The most popular courses may be full before Clearing ever starts, while others will fill up during Clearing. They may be open one day, and closed the next.

The Clearing process

First up, if you are registered with UCAS on, or after July 5th, you’ll automatically be entered into Clearing. If you have offers at that point, but don’t want them, you’ll need to wait until your results are in and use the ‘decline my place’ button in order to enter Clearing.

Secondly, to make an application, you’ll want to have an informal agreement with a university that they are happy to offer you a place. So you need to talk to them directly. Before the main A-level results day, you should just contact their admissions office (phone or email is fine), but if it’s on, or after A-level results day, each university will have a special phone number that they’ll advertise, or a special email address that you’ll need to contact.

They’ll also have loads of information on their websites telling you the qualifications and grades that they are looking for, and other useful advice.

So, you’ll phone or email different universities, and get verbal or email offer from those who want to offer you a place.

Thirdly, you’ll enter the university and course you want to choose into UCAS, and assuming everything you told them about you and your qualifications is confirmed in your application, they’ll confirm your place. The place is yours.

Clearing Plus

You’ll see that for Clearing, the onus is on you to ring universities. That can be pretty stressful. If you want to take the stress out a little, you can use Clearing Plus. If you are in Clearing after your exam results come out, there will be a button you can press called ‘see matches’. It will suggest courses that match your interests and your actual grades.

You can then click on the matches that you are interested in, and the university automatically gets a message to call you. After speaking with you, they will decide whether to offer you a place, and once again, you can make your choice.

It’s much the same, saves you a bit of effort, but also puts you at the mercy of the universities; which ones will actually call you? So use it if it works for you, but be prepared to make some pro-active calls yourself too!

Is Clearing for you?

For most of you, you won’t want to be in Clearing. But here’s the thing, last year 92% of those who found their place in Clearing were confident they had made the right choices! Sure, some will have been initially disappointed with their results, but I’ve seen hundreds of students who started out disappointed, but turned up on a Clearing Open Day and were delighted with the alternative they had found.

Some students use Clearing as a way to ‘trade up’ as they’d done better than expected in their exams. Others use it as an opportunity to change their mind, rectifying a choice they had made before that they no longer wanted. And even more actually just come late to the process, and find Clearing a super-quick and super-simple way to secure their place.

A final word…

Very few of you will be thinking right now that you want to go through UCAS Extra or Clearing. But sometimes life throws us a curve-ball or two, so be reassured that if things don’t go quite as you thought, and you need a back-up, both of these systems are there, on standby, in case you need them.