A key part of navigating Clearing is understanding how Confirmation works and the different scenarios your student could wake up to on Results Day morning.
Terminology
Before we get into the detail, it’s important to remind ourselves of key UCAS terminology that is used around students getting an offer.
Students will have received one of the following offers for each of their choices:
- Conditional (C) – the student has been offered a place that depends on them achieving certain grades or other conditions
- Unconditional (U) – the student has been offered a place that does not depend on grades or other conditions
- Reject (R) – the student was not offered a place
Students can select one of the following responses:
- Firm (F) – the student has chosen this university as their first choice
- Insurance (I) – the student has chosen this university as their back up choice
- Decline (D) – the student has declined this choice
Students can also Withdraw (W) from choices without waiting to hear back to see if they got an offer or without responding to an offer
What is Confirmation?
Confirmation is the period of time before the major results days – SQA (Scottish) Results Day and JCQ Results Day (which includes A-levels and many other UK qualifications). UCAS Hub freezes for a few days directly before these and no updates will show to student’s UCAS accounts during this time.
In the background, universities are sent the results for most qualifications for students holding an offer at their institution. This is so that they can decide whether they can confirm that student’s place, or whether they will need to update their application to unsuccessful.
Firm choice process
There are a few scenarios the student could be in.
- If the student is already holding an Unconditional (U) offer then nothing will change because the university was not waiting for any results or other information to confirm their place. They will still show as Unconditional Firm (UF) on UCAS
- If a student has a Conditional (C) offer and meets all of their conditions then they will be turned Unconditional Firm (UF) on UCAS
- If they do not meet the terms of their offer, their Firm university may still turn their offer Unconditional if they have spaces available on the course and feel the student will be successful. They would become Unconditional Firm (UF) on UCAS. This means the student can get into their top choice university even if they do not meet the grades required
- If their Firm university cannot confirm their place, then their application is passed to their Insurance university for them to consider the student
Insurance Choice process
The process is very similar to the Firm choice process:
- If the student already had an Unconditional Insurance (UI) offer, it will become Unconditional Firm (UF) on UCAS
- If they meet the terms of their Conditional Insurance (CI) offer, then they will become Unconditional Firm (UF) with their Insurance choice university
- If they do not meet the terms of their offer, their Insurance university may still turn their offer Unconditional if they have spaces available on the course and feel the student will be successful. They would become Unconditional Firm (UF) on UCAS. This means the student can get into their Insurance choice university even if they do not meet the grades required
- If their Insurance university cannot confirm their place, then they will be eligible for Clearing
Unconditional Course Change
Applicants may be offered an unconditional place with substantial changes to the original choice – this is known as an Unconditional Course Change (UCC). This usually happens if an applicant didn’t meet their conditions but the university or college wants to offer them a different course, start date and/or point of entry. As this is Unconditional, the student is already deemed to have met the conditions for the offer.
Applicants should check the details in the application and must reply to the offer either way. They will need to check if it is their Firm or Insurance university offering it to them, and what accepting it would do to their university choices.
Example 1
A student did not meet the grades for their Firm choice and was rejected. Their Insurance choice offered them an Unconditional Course Change (UCC). If the student accepts, they will become Unconditional Firm (UF). If they reject it, they will be entered into Clearing.
Example 2
A student was offered an Unconditional Course Change (UCC) from their Firm university. Their Insurance choice accepted them onto the course they originally applied to there, so they are holding an Unconditional Insurance (UI) with them. If they accept the UCC they will become Unconditional Firm (UF) at their top choice university. If they decline it, they will become Unconditional Firm (UF) at their Insurance university.
If they have any questions or concerns about the change, they need to speak to the university or college to find out why they’ve made this change.
UCAS has not updated
Sometimes the provider may not have been able to make a confirmation decision yet due to outstanding conditions. This could be because the applicant has not yet supplied proof of qualifications or other entry requirements. There may be a reason given on UCAS Hub to explain why the conditional offer hasn’t been confirmed yet, and they will usually be told there where to send any qualifications to.
It’s important to note that students waiting for GCSE re-sit results in August will not see an update on UCAS on their Level 3 Results Day because they have not yet met the terms of their offer. GCSE results are not sent to university automatically, so students should send them to their university when they receive them on GCSE results day.
If they have any concerns, they should contact their university or college to discuss.
Further support
We know that navigating Clearing & Confirmation can be a difficult process. If you need any support in the lead up to Clearing, please email us on schoolsliaison@city.ac.uk. If your students need support on the day (either Main Cycle applicants or Clearing ones) they can contact us on live chat at www.city.ac.uk/clearing.