Levitate Student: Video for Freshers

Levitate Student: Six Money B's for Clearing

 

Be Wise – Understand what Clearing is all about.

Clearing is a very exciting period in the academic calendar. Exam result can throw a sudden change of plan into the mix and a bit of quick thinking is required.

Yet so many students just hope it won’t happen and don’t want to think about it. It is really important to consider what you would do if results day means a change of plan. It’s not failing it is just shifting stance and that is fine.

Sometimes between picking courses and results day you have changed your mind anyway about second and third choices, or perhaps the institution has changed their mind about you – for better or worse. You may have received offers from universities but no longer want to accept them and want to look elsewhere – that’s what Clearing is for.

It’s okay – it’s exciting but it’s good to have thought about where else you might want to study, have thought about the financial impact and have planned for those changes.

Clearing might turn out to be the best day ever when you look back – so embrace it.

Be prepared – it’s the early bird that catches the worm

Hopefully once you have learnt how Clearing and Adjustment works you will have a plan in mind for results day.

Universities plan their own strategies well in advance and have an army of staff on hand to deal with their customer queries and help with new offers and to hopefully win your custom.

The universities are eager to fill their courses so as the day goes by fewer places will be in the Clearing pool. It’s makes sense to act as swiftly as possible, though ensure you are comfortable with your decision. Planning ahead will help your swift response not turn into a panic.

Be an empowered consumer

Remember you are a customer of the universities. On results day, unless the university is fortunate to have filled all its courses, they will be waiting and hoping for your call.

The universities open their Clearing Lines early and keep them running until they have filled all the spaces they possibly can. It is a stressful time for the university staff dealing with all the enquiries and changes of circumstances that results day brings. The staff usually offer a responsive service to win your custom so don’t phone the Helpline thinking they are doing you a favour. This flux works both ways – they want you just as much as you want them and they are likely to be flexible on entry requirements.

As a potential customer of the university check out their terms and conditions – usually these are usually found on the website as for example

Student Regulations/University Regulation/General Regulations......

These may be dull but are very important to know about as the intuitions will follow these rules when dealing with their students.

Also see if your university has Student Charter or other form of customer service agreement.

Get to know what support services the university offers such as well-being, advice, careers, help for disabled students etc.

Understand your consumer rights by looking what the Competition and Market Authority advice for undergraduates. 

Be on top - Keep the funder informed of changes of circumstance

This seems obvious but when you are busy it’s easy to forget. If you change university, course etc then the funder (SFE, SAAS, SFW, SFNI) needs to know.

Be informed -Check out your universities of choice on OFFA

TheOffice for Fair Access work to ensure universities are reaching out to all potential students. Each Higher Education Institution submits an agreement about how they achieve this every year to OFFA for approval.

Read the agreements from universities of choice – there may be details of extra financial help that you may be eligible for.

Be flexible on accommodation

Changing university in August can mean that your accommodation plans have to change too. Not all universities will have accommodation for all their first year students. Those who accept a place through Clearing may find this an additional challenge.

Again universities are used to this process happening year on year and will provide guidance. You may have to consider living in Private Rented instead of Halls. You may have to start looking for a place at short notice. Remember that it won’t just be you and the university may put you in touch with other students in the same situation. They may have lists of private rented accommodation providers or of shared houses with a room available.  Also prospective students often use social media to find others to share with. So be ready to respond to these options.

Signing your accommodation contract may seem a big commitment and it is. Whether the accommodation provider is a university, private halls, landlord’s agent or private landlord, you will be signing a legal tenancy agreement.

It will be legally binding for the number of weeks outlined and is likely to require the student and a guarantor to sign it.

Know what you are signing for – the number of weeks (these can vary widely 42,44,52 for example); what is the deposit; are there administration fees; what is included in the rent; how many instalments & when are they paid; what are the rules for terminating the contract......

Note that for halls of residence the instalments may not be equal. For example it is possible for the institution to front load the plan so that you pay more in the first term. This can be tough to budget for but it’s best to be prepared.

If you are looking at private accommodation, then many universities offer services to check the tenancy agreement before you sign – worth doing to be safe.

You do not have to go into halls and if you chose private rented then understand your rights fully. Look on www.shelter.org.uk and www.unipol.org.uk for helpful information. Also learn about Tenancy Deposit Schemes

Remember if you choose to live at home to consider how you will contribute to the household bills from your student finance.

This video on Fresher’sAccommodation may help you.

Levitate Student: August! Clearing & Adjustment Plan

A' level results are pending.

What many do not realise is that half of A' Level students do not get the results they were hoping for, while some of course will perform better than predicted. However given this scope for results differing from those anticipated, few prospective higher education students have a contingency plan for results day. 

Results day means potential for everything to change. Better grades could bring opportunities to consider institutions that may have seemed out of reach, lower than expected results brings different opportunities, but opportunities none the less. 

Its worth thinking about what you might do if.......

Universities take results day very seriously and most have crack teams of staff on hand all day from early hours on results day and through the following weeks until their courses are full. It is a stressful time for university staff to negotiate around the changes while dealing with anxious enquiries from worried/hopeful students.

Here a first year higher education student tells of his experience from A' Level results day 2015.....

I woke early, it's not easy to sleep in on the day your future gets decided right? Rewind a bit to my three university choices - by the time August came I had changed my mind about my second choice university, I knew I no longer wanted to go there, so my hopes, I thought were all pinned on my first choice university. I felt I had done okay in my exams - you never can tell though can you?

On the morning I logged onto my sixth from college student portal at 7 am and collected my result. It took me about ten minutes to slowly work out what I was looking at - my doomed future or so I thought. I was very sleepy so it really took some effort to compute that the results on screen were not what I had been relying on for my first choice uni. The problem was in my main subject I had done very badly in one paper - so while getting A's in the others my overall mark was lower than predicted. 

I didn't have the conditional grades to secure a place at my first choice uni -  I felt defeated. I spoke to my parents who were typical in saying all the right things about my results being very good if not what I had expected. They encouraged me to make an early call to my first choice university which I did. The staff member confirmed that my grades would not secure my place, they were great an guided me to call back if I asked for my paper to be remarked etc.

I had an offer from my second choice university but I didn't want to accept. My third choice had asked for a higher grade in my main subject - I called them and they quickly replied to say they too would still be happy to offer me a place.

Still I felt I had failed - but my mum reminded me that I had 3 good A' Level results and just had two university offers before breakfast!! 

Get over it! 

I headed into college to talk to teachers especially about the low grade paper. Mum stayed home looking at what unis were offering spaces on courses of my preferred subject through clearing. She made a list. 

When I returned from college we chatted and I decided to stick with my third choice university. My parents had always liked this one anyway for location, reputation and facilities. I phoned the uni clearing line back and told them I was happy to accept their offer.

The scary bit was having to decline the offer on UCAS from my second choice university. This was needed so that my third choice could make a formal offer. It felt strange on the strength of the phone call taking this step. However the verbal offer was backed up later with an email from the university.

I felt nervous but determined and soon I was coming to terms with the shift and feeling comfortable with it. I didn't have an accommodation place secured and was left with the option of finding a private rented or waiting until freshers week to see if a space in hall would come available. I attended an accommodation Meet and Greet session and meet another student who was in the same situation. We swapped numbers and agreed to go searching for accommodation together. We found a shared rented house along with two other first years so it all worked out okay. I liked it as my room was massive compared with hall - the only downside was being off campus especially in the early weeks.

There was no problem with Student Finance England - I just let them know of the change of circumstances, no hassle, no need to reapply - easy!

Really......now I can't imagine being anywhere else. I enjoyed my first year, made some great friends and am now looking forward to my second year sharing new accommodation with other students from my course.

Looking back I do wish I had thought ahead of results day about what I might want to do rather than just cross my fingers and hope for the best. However the support I got from parents, schools and in particular the university staff made it all okay. 

So embrace the day what ever it brings - uncross your fingers, think ahead, seek help and advice.

For more information visit UCAS Clearing