Don’t be scared or intimidated when applying to university through Clearing - because it might be the best thing that’s ever happened to you.
That’s according to Grace Borg, a Media & Communication graduate who found herself at Liverpool Hope University when her original plans changed at the last minute.
Grace, like many others, says she was completely unprepared for Clearing and is now calling for better education about the process to end the fear and stigma that surrounds it.
And the 22-year-old reassures students that if you do find their first choice pathway blocked on results day, all is definitely not lost.
Grace, from Hockley, Essex, says: “My advice to anyone who finds themselves heading into Clearing is this - remember that your dream is not over, it’s just on a different path.
“And I think everything happens for a reason. I ended up at a university that I wouldn’t swap for the world. It sounds so cringe-worthy, but Hope is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I had a great time and ended up leaving with a First Class degree.”
University ‘Clearing’ is a system that lets prospective students explore their options and search for courses that still have availability.
It’s particularly important for students whose planned university pathways are blocked once their exam results are published - with A Level grades due to be released on Tuesday 10 August this year.
At sixth form, Grace studied for A Levels in Media, Religious Education and Photography and achieved respectable grades of BCD… but still woke up to rejection emails from her initial first choice places.
She explains: “On the morning I got my results, I ran into my mum and dad’s bedroom as if it was Christmas, telling them, ‘I’ve got emails from universities!’ But when I actually read them I realised they were rejection letters. I just could not stop crying. I told my mum, ‘That’s it - I’m just going to have to work in Tesco’.
“I’m also the first person in my family to go to university, so neither of my parents knew how Clearing works. There was a real sense of panic.”
In the end, it was Grace’s Head of Sixth Form who saved the day. Realising how upset she was, he sat her down in his office and told her, ‘Here’s a phone and an iPad. This is Clearing. And this is what we need to do’.”
Grace says she spoke with one university - who we won’t name - who simply told her, ‘Try again next year’ before hanging up the phone without saying goodbye.
But her experience with the Hope Clearing line was something else entirely.
Grace reveals: “I spoke with a lovely lady on the phone at Hope who just calmed all of my nerves. She looked at my CV, realised I had lots of extra-curricular experience to back-up my application, and ultimately offered me a place.
“It was like something out of a film - I dropped the phone and burst into tears. I heard the poor lady on the other end of the line saying, ‘Grace? Grace? Are you still there…? Would you like to accept?’
“I’d love to find the person I spoke to on that Clearing line and tell them how things worked out.”
In Grace’s eyes, the big thing that needs to change is in educating students on what Clearing really is and the opportunities it might afford.
She adds: “I went to a College that placed a huge emphasis on going to university… and yet we were never told about Clearing. It never got mentioned.
“I think a lot of people, myself included, always viewed it as something negative when, actually, it’s just an opportunity to dip your toe back in the market and see what else is out there. One of my friends got all A grades in her A Levels but still used Clearing to see if there were better opportunities for her.
“We need to put an end to the stigma - and that falls to schools and sixth form colleges teaching students about the opportunities that Clearing can bring.
“I know that my own sixth form now runs presentations on Clearing to their students, having seen how upset I was at the time.”
And Grace, who acted as a Senior Resident Tutor during her third year, is adamant her time at Hope was a happy one.
She enthuses: “The help and support I received at Hope was incredible.
“Even now, my lecturers will still check in with me to see how I am, and I left more than a year ago. I remember being told during an open day, ‘You’re not a number at Hope, you’re a person’. At the time I was pretty sceptical. But it’s true - the community is compact enough that the lecturers know your name, they take an interest in who you are, and they want to ensure you get the most out of your time at the University.
“I’ve spoken with friends at other institutions who were flabbergasted by the fact that I could just knock on my lecturer’s door and grab them for a chat. That’s unheard of at other unis.
“And I always got the impression that Hope lecturers really cared about their students’ degrees. That acted as motivation for me. In the end, I wanted to do as well as I possibly could so that my department looked good, too.”
Grace graduated in 2020 before going on to study for a PGCE and she’s now employed in a primary school in Essex.
** Clearing applications to study with Hope from September 2021 are now OPEN.
If you are interested in applying through Clearing, then please email clearing@hope.ac.uk and a member of our team will contact you to discuss your options for studying at Liverpool Hope University.
For full details, including information about Hope’s Clearing ‘Priority Pass’, head to: hope.ac.uk/clearing