With Clearing opening last week, we can practically smell the late-night coffees, and piles of snacks keeping everyone going already.

With the last two Clearings being out of the ordinary, all eyes are on this year’s Clearing. There are more 18-year-old students in the market than last year, and if the last two and a half years have taught us anything in student recruitment, it’s how responsive and agile we need to be to cope with the ever-changing market. From an influx of appeals resulting in a grade U-Turn in 2020, to a change in student behaviour resulting in slower decision making in 2021, it’s been a crazy couple of years for Clearing.

With Ofqual deciding to lower grade boundaries to provide more of a ‘safety net’ to students sitting exams for the first time in three years (Ofqual), we can expect once again to see more students with higher grades than pre-pandemic students. However, there has also been discussions that Year 12 students may have been mis-lead to believe they can receive an offer from a high tariff institution, with three Bs for example, when the market has changed significantly over the last few years, and those students should have had an achievable insurance choice to fall back on. This means there may be students who are disappointed when it comes to Results Day (DataHE, The Guardian). A survey of students undertaken by UCAS in May 2022 showed 65% of students felt they were likely to receive the grades required for their firm choice, with 24% being unsure, and 10% feeling like they were unlikely to achieve those grades. (UCAS, 2022)

On top of this, many high tariff institutions will choose not to enter Clearing at all, as suggested by 12 of DataHE’s Russell Group clients (The Guardian). This is largely due to universities recruiting high volumes of students during the pandemic, and rising concerns of how this may affect the student experience. However, this will create more opportunities for mid and low tariff institutions, who will benefit from high-achieving students trickling down from the high tariff universities unable to accept more applications.

As more institutions have begun to ramp up their offline awareness activity following the reduced threat of Covid-19, it is more important than ever to ensure you have a strong presence during this key recruitment period.

And whilst some universities are unsure with their Clearing approach this year, with the right research and strategy, we can ensure you have a plan for any eventuality during Clearing!

From everyone here at Education Cubed, we wish you all the best for Clearing 2022, and we’ll see you on the other side!

REBECCA LONGHURST

SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER