Opportunity and Diversity: How Clearing is Changing and Why it Needs to

Clearing is on an upward trajectory.

In 2023, UCAS reported that a record number of 18 year olds, over 38,000, were accepted into university through the system, which allocates prospective students with places on courses after normal application deadlines have closed. In total, nearly 70,000 students found a place through clearing that year, a significant segment of that year’s intake.

What was once pejoratively seen as a second choice or an unwanted backup option to be avoided is now embraced by many students, as the culture around university entry has changed.

No longer do students feel the need to head straight to university after college. Some start work and gain valuable life experience, while others broaden their horizons through travel, which takes them off the traditional path of applying to university through UCAS while in college or sixth form. There’s also plenty of people who have a change of heart and decide to go to university or switch course at the last minute.

Collectively, this is diversifying the pool of people who apply to university through clearing; it’s no longer just the conveyer belt you end up on if you didn’t get the grades you expected.

This has changed how academic institutions approach the clearing process for the better. There’s never been such a prestigious and diverse set of courses available to study through clearing, and it’s providing prospective students with great opportunities.

When Clearing Changes Lives: Anastasiia’s Story

Take Anastasiia Shovkoplias. A Ukrainian teenager, she was studying programming in Slovakia, on an exchange from her university in Ukraine, when Russia invaded her home country. Her mum was forced to flee the family home in Kyiv due to the bombing, so they came to the UK through the ‘Homes for Ukraine’ scheme.

Despite the turmoil in her personal life, Anastasiia still wanted to pursue her dream of becoming a music journalist. It was late August by the time she was in a position to apply for university, so the deadline for applications was long passed, but she managed to find a space on London Met’s journalism BA course through clearing.

Three years later, she’s graduating with honours in Journalism from London Met, and is set to start a masters in the autumn. While at university, she also produced a music magazine, UnderCore, travelling to several countries to interview musicians as part of the project.

Embracing Opportunity, Not Settling for Second Best

It’s this type of success story which demonstrates the value of clearing so plainly. A student who wouldn’t have had the opportunity to go to university was given a chance, embraced it, worked hard, and is now thriving in the industry she always wanted to be a part of. Clearing gave Anastasia a chance to thrive and enabled her to succeed.

It’s great to see more students, colleges and academic institutions embracing clearing, and using it to provide opportunities like this. It’s time we changed the narrative and started using the system as a tool to provide opportunity.

At London Metropolitan University, I work on the front line of our applications process, and am proud that we offer plenty of opportunities to students through clearing. It’s often these people who grasp the opportunities which university offers them more forcefully than anyone else, so it’s really important that we don’t shut them out of the system. To do so would be detrimental to the social and cultural diversity which make our universities such rich places to learn, and a failure of our academic institutions.

So next time you see a student heading for clearing this results season, encourage them to embrace it, they’re about to embark on the most exciting and opportunity-packed ride of their life.    

By Gary Davies, Deputy Vice Chancellor at London Metropolitan University