1 UCAS for new practitioners Matthew Harrison Schools and Colleges Liaison Officer

1

UCAS for new practitioners Matthew HarrisonSchools and Colleges Liaison Officer

Session Outline

• The UCAS form

• Clearing, Adjustment, UCAS Extra, Apply and Track

• What happens after you click ‘send’

• Some topical issues

• The future is bright?

• Questions

Monday, April 10, 2023 3

The UCAS Process

UCAS (www.ucas.com)

• Universities and Colleges Admissions Service• Central applications agency for HE applications in

England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland• Handles over 600,000 applications per year


UCAS – Key facts

• ‘Invisibility’

• Maximum of five choices (some exceptions)• Simultaneous consideration• Conditional offers – 2 can be held• August – confirmation of offers• £22 Registration Fee



What happens next?

• Once completed the application is sent to UCAS

• UCAS will send an acknowledgement

• Copies of the application are sent to the chosen universities


UCAS Track

• Allows students to view their own record

• Gives 24/7 access

• Shows choices, offers & personal information

• Password protected

– password is on acknowledgement letter

• Can be used by students to reply to offers


UCAS Clearing

• Clearing is used by applicants who have not managed to secure a place at university

or college for the current year

• It is the process where applicants are matched with vacancies

• Course vacancies in Clearing are published on www.ucas.com from mid-August until

late-September


UCAS Clearing

1. Applicant contacts HEI to discuss vacancies

2. Applicant enters choice details on Track

3. HEI will make a decision

4. If unsuccessful applicant can start again

5. If successful applicant will receive confirmation of their place


UCAS Adjustment

• Each year some applicants pass their exams with better results than expected • This may mean that some will have not only met the conditions of their firm

choice, but will have exceeded them • The Adjustment period provides an opportunity for them to reconsider where and

what to study • Around 400 applicants successfully were placed using Adjustment last year

(under 10 at UoN)


UCAS Extra

• Extra gives applicants an additional chance to gain an offer, subject to certain conditions

• Extra allows additional single choices, entered and considered one at a time

• Course vacancies for extra are listed on the UCAS website


UCAS Extra

Applicants eligible for Extra:

• Used all 5 choices

• Received all decisions

• Holds no offers or declined all offers

04/10/23 Event Name and Venue 23


When the application reaches us!

• Universities receive applications in batches• Sent to admissions office• Applications are assessed• Decisions are made

• Unconditional, conditional, interview, unsuccessful• There are exceptions

• i.e. Medicine, Law, Veterinary Medicine…


Additional admissions tests

• National tests• i.e. LNAT, UKCAT, BMAT

• University / college questionnaires• Oxbridge tests• Used for competitive / vocational courses• Taken into account when making offers

www.lnat.ac.uk | www.bmat.org.uk | www.ukcat.ac.uk


What are we looking for?

• Strong academic profile

• may include specific GCSE’s and AS/A2 Levels

• Knowledge and interest in subject area

• students who have read outside of the curriculum texts!

• Career aspirations

• Relevant work experience/voluntary placements


What are we looking for?

• Extra curricular activities

• Key skills

• teamwork, organisation, time management

• Other factors;

• Interviews

• Additional tests

• Additional information on questionnaires etc


Some topical issues…. • AAB policy

• Clearing stress!

– The current Clearing process relies on people getting through on a phone which has become very

difficult and therefore stressful for all involved.

• The boomerang effect

– Around 42% of applicants hold a CI offer with equal requirements to one they hold as a CF offer.

Many then reapply as a strategy. 75,000 reapplied in 2011 from the year before (2010). In 2011

more people were placed through Clearing than through insurance.


The Future is bright? • The proposed PQA (or post-results) system is not being taken forward. The reasons listed

were: – pressures of a compressed timetable – access concerns for certain key groups– differing approaches to term and examination timetables across the four countries of the UK

However….

– consultation responses broadly supported a series of significant enhancements and reforms


The Future is bright?

• Clearing will be replaced with a fair and managed process (on-line,

we believe) for applicants.

• There will be greater flexibilities in Extra that will enable more

applicants to hold both a firm and insurance offer before

Confirmation


The Future is bright? Proposals that received strong support and are

recommended for implementation• The introduction of myUCAS© – a web portal to provide improved information

to applicants to support their research, their choices and their applications• Increasing and improving the use of mandatory fields and data validation in

the online application form• The facility to upload supporting documentation, including portfolios


The Future is bright? • Working with awarding bodies to extend the Awarding Body Linkage (ABL)

service so that a wider range of verified examination results are uploaded to applicant profiles

• Improved terminology (eg replacing CF, UF)• Improved guidance for completing references• Work with HEIs to achieve further developments towards paperless processing

and use of e-forms• Improved facility to provide feedback on HEI decisions to applicants


The Future is bright? • At Confirmation, the facility for HEIs to view the conditions of the firm

choice of their own insurance applicants• Improving information capture and data quality to aid HEI decision-making• Work with relevant bodies to secure the central capture of data and

sharing with third parties, such as the Student Loans Company and UK Border Agency to streamline processes fee status assessments, visas and Criminal Records Bureau checks.


Full copy of the report• www.ucas.com

35

Questions?

@UniofNottingham

The University of Nottingham

www.youtube.com/user/NottmUniversity

Want to know what it’s like to be a student? Find out at:

http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/studentlife

Documents

1 UCAS for new practitioners Matthew Harrison Schools and Colleges Liaison Officer