The UCAS deadline is drawing close and undoubtedly for you and your students there will be a relief once those applications have been sent. However quite often the second part is the hardest, the waiting. Below we have broken down the months on the lead up to starting university courses and what students can expect in the next 6 months.
January – May
In these months, universities will be reviewing applications sent in through UCAS and beginning to make their offers to students. In fact, you might find that if any students sent their applications in before the January deadline, they might have already heard back from some of their choices! The deadline for universities to reply to their applications submitted by the 29th January is late May 2021. This does mean that students can be in for a long wait, so we find it’s important to assure them that just because they do not hear back straight away does not mean anything negative. Even within the different schools and departments in one university there can be huge variations on how quickly they respond to applications. You can find all the UCAS deadlines for universities and students here.
February
On the 25th February UCAS Extra will open for students to use. UCAS Extra is an additional tool if students have applied to all 5 of their choices and are not holding any offers – whether that be because they were rejected or they declined their offers. A student can only use UCAS Extra once they have heard back from all 5 universities and cannot use it if they receive a conditional or unconditional offer without declining it. It can be used from when it opens in February through to July before clearing begins and students can apply to one extra choice at a time. Click here for more information about UCAS Extra.
In February if your students are in England, they will be able to start their applications for Student Finance England. We recommend students create their profile and start this process as early as possible so that their applications have plenty of time to be reviewed and their details can be changed later. It can take between 6-8 weeks for a new application to be processed however it can take only a matter of hours to change a university and a course, so starting the application early is worth it for your students. This means they do not need to wait until they have a confirmed place to study before applying. You can keep up to date with Student Finance England here.
May
For all applications received by the January deadline, students should have received their responses and offers from universities. From then they can make decisions about their firm and insurance choices and start the process of applying to student accommodation – different universities have different guarantees for student accommodation, so make sure to tell students to check for each of their top choices.
June
Once students have received all of their offers from universities they have until mid-June to reply to their offers. Students will see these dates on the track section of their UCAS profile. It is important they know their deadlines as if they do not select a firm or insurance by the date set then all of their places will be declined.
July
In July UCAS extra will close and clearing will open. Clearing can be an exceptionally difficult time for students and especially with all the changes to exams and results in the last 12 months universities are making sure to be as responsive to government changes as possible and help all students. Keep an eye on our expert blog in the coming months where we will update on what clearing will look like for Summer 2021.