Broadcast: News items

This week, Stephen Shute, Pro Vice Chancellor (Planning and Resources) wrote to all staff with an update on Clearing. You can read the message in full below.

Dear colleague,

With just over a month to go before we welcome students onto campus for the start of the new academic year, I want to give you a brief update on how student numbers are looking.

First, I would like to thank everybody who has been involved in this year’s confirmation and clearing process, on A-level results day and in the lead-up and aftermath. From admissions and recruitment colleagues in Professional Services and Schools, to marketing, digital and IT teams, academic tutors and staff volunteers, this has been a huge cross-University effort.

Our accelerated use of new technologies has been one welcome side-effect of the pandemic. Being able to take calls remotely and chat with applicants online has created a far more streamlined and efficient operation. We now offer students the ability to apply for clearing online, plus our phone system is able to triage students to the right person to speak to depending on their enquiry. As a result, average wait times on our phone lines were just 27 seconds on A-level results day and 10 seconds the following day, which is a huge improvement on pre-pandemic years.

For the past five years, Clearing has become increasingly important for us, as we seek to top-up undersubscribed courses and further bolster our most popular courses amid an increasingly competitive higher education landscape.

Following the trend of the past few years, the majority of callers were interested in a small selection of particular subjects and it is important that we continue to do everything we can to meet that demand.

Some students are still considering their offers and making adjustments, and we won’t truly know how we have done until students actually set foot on campus next term, but the indications are that we have performed as we hoped we would and we can congratulate ourselves on a great team effort.

As well as Clearing, colleagues have been busy ensuring we have the right support in place for international students this coming term. We are expecting students to join us for the start of term or as soon as they possibly can. You can read about our approach on the Student Hub. There may be a few exemptions, where joining us in-person is not immediately possible and we have outlined these. However, the expectation is that students will be here on campus at the earliest opportunity.

With best wishes,

Stephen Shute
Pro Vice Chancellor (Planning and Resources)