Fair admissions and Clearing: how does it work?

Going to university and choosing the right one is a huge decision. So, admissions must always be fair and transparent. It’s right that admissions commands public trust too. 

For universities, there’s the UUK–GuildHE Fair admissions code of practice. This declares that admissions decisions must be made in the student interest above all else. Although this Code is aimed at how universities recruit UK (‘home’) students, they’re encouraged to consider how the principles apply to international students too. But we’re going to go further, and review where the Code is expected to apply to international recruitment. 

Universities will take an applicant's context and background into account, whether they’re an international student or UK student. This might mean entry grades differ between students. 

Admissions decisions are about more than grades, though. If someone has a specific academic background or experience, but clearly has the potential to succeed, they might be accepted into university with lower grades than advertised, including during Clearing. 

This is not about compromising on quality or standards – if a university admits high proportions of people who fail their degree, the regulator (in England, the Office for Students) will investigate and take action. 

International student fees actually support places for British students, and without them there would be fewer places available. International students coming to the UK bring so many non-financial benefits to our university campuses and to their local communities too.  

But, of course, the fees they pay are becoming more and more important – inflation has meant spiralling costs while tuition fees have been frozen for a decade, so universities now teach UK students at a loss. 

It’s worth noting that Scottish and Northern Irish universities also have caps on the numbers of home students they can recruit. 

However, universities have expanded places for UK 18-year-olds over the past decade by 20%. Since 2014–15, UK undergraduates have increased by over 180,000, while international student numbers have increased by just 61,000. Across all universities at undergraduate level, UK students made up 85% of the total student population.

Universities will plan in advance how many UK and international students they hope to recruit.  They have separate targets for home and international students. In some cases when they have met their target for home students they may continue offering places to international students, but this does not mean that they are ‘taking away’ places from home students.

UCAS has an ‘equal consideration’ deadline in January and the majority of UK applicants apply by this deadline. The same deadlines apply to all applicants.

Clearing usually opens in July. Many overseas applicants, including some UK nationals at school abroad, will already have their exam results by this point, and many might not have ended up with the results they expected and change their plans. Some home students also apply for the first time through clearing from this point on.

Most UK students will get their exam results in August, which is when Clearing really gets busy.

Admissions teams get applications from people around the world with hundreds of different qualifications among them. They’re the experts in knowing what skills, competencies and abilities come with a qualification, whether from Newcastle, Norway or Nigeria. 

There’s also an organisation called UK ENIC (under contract from the Department for Education) whose key role is to set out a common recognition and comparison of international qualifications and skills.

All universities which accept international students are subject to thorough oversight by UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI, part of the Home Office).  

As part of this, universities can only recruit international students if they comply with UKVI rules. International students have to show documentation to demonstrate they’re qualified and have the funding and level of English needed in order to get a visa.   

If a university fails to satisfy the requirements placed on it by UKVI then they can lose their ability to recruit international students. 

Often yes. They help students and universities by making the application process smoother and reducing university admin. If universities didn’t use agents, they would have to have their own staff posted in many countries around the world to support students to apply. That would be uneconomical and hugely inefficient.

They’re also used by American, Australian and Canadian universities and many other universities around the world.

It’s really important that agents are acting responsibly when they’re providing a service to a university, which is why UUKi, BUILA, UKCISA and the British Council created an Agent quality framework last year. It clearly sets out the ethical and professional standards agents need to meet and provides them with training. 

But there’s more that can be done. We’re now going to review this framework, ensure adoption across the sector and be clear in identifying bad and good practice.