Increasing numbers of pupils are waiting until A-level results day to decide on their degree course, the admissions chief has said.
Dr Jo Saxton, head of Ucas, said more youngsters are opting for the clearing process to ‘exert their choice’ once they have their exam grades.
She said the ‘single largest group’ of applicants who used clearing last year was people ‘trading in’ their original offer.
Clearing has traditionally been for pupils who miss their predicted grades and need to find a new course, having lost their original place. But in recent years, the power has transferred to students as prestigious universities try to get more people in to boost budgets.
It has meant many of those who do better than expected can simply swap their original place for another with higher grade requirements. Alternatively, students may simply change their minds and opt for something different.
Dr Saxton said there is ‘loads of choice’ in clearing this year, adding there is ‘every kind of course under the sun available, from medicine through to psychology.’
It comes as more than a quarter of a million pupils prepare to receive their A-level results tomorrow (thurs), with tens of thousands expected to enter clearing.
An analysis by the Press Association last week found that more top institutions had courses available through clearing than last year.
In 2023, 21,620 applicants declined their original firm choice and secured a place elsewhere through clearing, compared with 19,635 in 2022, figures show.
Around 29 per cent of all candidates who were accepted in clearing last summer were applicants who declined a firm offer and then opted for something else.
Dr Saxton said: ‘There’s been a long debate in policy about whether admissions should be done post-qualification, and basically what we’re seeing here is that students are increasingly exerting that choice and the system is giving it to them.
‘We’ve got a significant group who are choosing to, in effect, make their application and choice post-qualification.’
During a webinar hosted by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) think tank she added: ‘I think that’s partly why we might be seeing some differences on what’s on offer in clearing.’
In the wide-ranging discussion, Dr Saxton also said universities should make allowances for students at the 200 schools affected by the RAAC scandal, where classrooms had to be evacuated due to unsafe concrete.
Ofqual has already said no mitigating circumstances will be allowed for RAAC in terms of A-level grades.
But Dr Saxton said Ucas has ‘shared information’ with universities about who has been affected so that universities can make allowances.
She added: ‘This is a particularly extreme piece of context that has affected students in around 200 schools and colleges and it’s appropriate that admissions teams should be aware of that.’