What is Clearing

Clearing is an opportunity for students to explore their options and consider other possibilities if their plans have changed, or they are having second thoughts about their course. It’s organised by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

Clearing isn’t just for students who didn’t get the grades they need to go to their first-choice university. They can choose to use Clearing if they’re eligible for these following reasons:

• they’re applying after 30 June
• they didn’t receive any offers (or none they wanted to accept)
• they didn’t meet the conditions of their offers
• they’ve declined their firm place

Clearing is a University-wide effort at Kent and students can apply to study here through Clearing from 5 July if they have their results and are not already holding an offer from a university or college.

We need volunteers from across the University to help, whether offer-making, staffing the Hotline or making calls to students. If you’re able to help, particularly on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 August, and you’re not already on a Clearing rota please get in touch with Laetitia Gullett via schoolsliaison@kent.ac.uk. Take a look at our ‘We need you! Clearing 2021’ story for further details on giving your support.

For more information on Clearing at Kent visit the website, read this Guide to Clearing 2021 or watch this useful YouTube video.

Embargo training  

If you would like to help with the Clearing process then please ensure you take the Embargo training which is run by UCAS, and mandatory for anyone who has access to student data, speaks to students, has access to online systems such as Kent Vision and/or will be working in Clearing.

The results embargo period – which will run from the 4 August at 12:00 until 10 August at 08:30 – covers the time from when UCAS receives qualification results from awarding bodies, matches them to applicants, and supplies them to universities and colleges, to enable them to make informed decisions on applications.

During this time you cannot communicate with students about their results or anything that would indicate what their results are.

If a breach occurs there are serious ramifications for the university. Breaches occur in many ways that you will not have thought of so it’s imperative to do the training.