When things do not go according to plan

Sometimes even the very best students receive no offers. Some courses are very popular and, for these, the grades required for entry tend to rise, as does the importance of presenting a well-rounded personal statement. Far more students apply for each of these courses than there are places available. Most of them are potentially well-qualified - their schools or colleges have seen to that. Therefore, perfectly good applicants find they have been unsuccessful. Some of them inevitably meet the same outcome at all their choices or, perhaps more frustratingly, find their only offer has come from the one place they now wish they had not included.

Extra and Clearing

This is why Extra and Clearing are such vital parts of our system. Both offer chances to your son or daughter if their application has not turned out as they had hoped. To be eligible for either, an applicant has to be holding no offers. The only problem is that really over-subscribed courses do not usually have vacancies in Extra and Clearing. Students faced with this situation can either apply for a different kind of course or consider reapplying the following year. If they choose the latter, maintaining focus can be hard and you need to encourage them to achieve the best results of which they are capable.

Extra

  • Extra runs from the end of February until the end of June.
  • Courses with vacancies in Extra are indicated on Course Search.
  • Applicants eligible for Extra refer their application using the online Track service.
  • If an applicant is successful and accepts the offer, Extra is over for them.
  • If an applicant is unsuccessful, they can refer their application elsewhere (time permitting).

Using Extra is as easy as it sounds.

Clearing

  • Clearing is quite similar to Extra, and starts after exam results are published in August.
  • Clearing vacancies occur either because students who were holding offers failed to meet the grades, or because those places were not filled in the first place.
  • Applicants make a direct approach to universities and colleges that have vacancies.
  • If an applicant is accepted, the university or college contact us and we send a confirmation letter to the applicant.