Schools are being urged to prepare for a busy clearing period after A-level results and be ready to help students research options and find a “plan B” for university courses if they face disappointment with their A-level results next week.
Clare Marchant, the chief executive of Ucas, the UK university admissions service, said students would need to be “quick off the mark” on A-level results day if they wish to study at a top university as competition for clearing places will be tougher.
She said: “When it comes to results day on 17 August, I think a lot of those highly selective courses at highly selective institutions will go quite quickly.
“My advice to students, our advice at Ucas, is to be pretty quick off the mark if that’s what you’re looking for.
“It’s getting more competitive, which means places are filled up quicker, and therefore there are slightly fewer in clearing and the competitive stuff that is in clearing is likely to go faster.”
Eight days ahead of exam results day, there were a total of 22,410 courses through clearing across 130 universities, an analysis by PA showed.
A similar analysis by PA last year - carried out six days before A-level results day - showed there were a total of 23,280 courses through clearing.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said schools and colleges will be doing all they can to help students get their chosen university place.
“Staff will also be on hand to advise on next steps as necessary, including clearing and other options. As Ucas has highlighted, most students who want to go to university will secure their preferred choice and there remains a wide range of other opportunities available for young people,” Mr Barton added.
Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “It’s really important to remember that, as is the case every year, school and college staff are there to help their students, whatever their results next week.
“Whether a student misses out on the grades they were hoping for or does better than they expected, staff will be there to support them in making their decision on what to do next, which sometimes might be a different path than the one planned.”
In England, this year’s national A-level results will be lower than last year, but they are expected to be similar to those before the pandemic.
It comes after Covid-19 led to an increase in top A-level grades in 2020 and 2021, with results based on teacher assessments instead of exams.
Ms Hannafin said that the lower grades expected will be “no reflection on the hard work of school staff and students”, but simply a result of the government’s decision to return to pre-pandemic levels.
“Schools, colleges, universities, colleges and employers will therefore be aware that it would be inappropriate to compare the grades awarded with those from previous years.
“They should take this into account, supporting students as best they can when making decisions on places and offers, including amid the likely tough competition for entry to higher education this year.”
Ms Marchant added that Ucas has increased the amount of social media support offered to students ahead of results day in a bid to “manage expectations”.
“A lot of people I talk to, it feels like Covid-19 was a long, long time ago. This is still the tail of Covid really because these students haven’t sat external exams before and I think that we need to be very cognisant of that in making sure we have really good support,” she said.
