Pressure on student finances may be affecting clearing choices
Experts say a “growing pressure” on student finances may influence prospective undergraduates choices.
As record numbers of students are expected to secure a place through clearing this year, experts say a “growing pressure” on student finances may influence the choices prospective undergraduates make after results day.
Thursday next week a record number of 18-year-olds are predicted to wake up to the news that they have been successful in securing their first-choice university.
Record numbers of students are also expected to be accepting places through, and applying directly to, clearing this year.
'Stabilisation' in higher education
The head of Universities UK (UUK), which represents more than 140 institutions, is hopeful that admissions will be more predictable than last summer after “stabilisation” in the sector.
Three out of four top institutions have courses available through clearing – which matches applicants to university places yet to be filled – in the week before A-level results day, analysis has found.
A Press Association sample of 131 of the UK’s largest higher education providers showed more than 22,800 courses with vacancies for undergraduate students living in England were available on the Ucas clearing site as of Wednesday.
Eighteen of the 24 elite Russell Group universities had vacancies on courses for English residents – a total of 3,530 courses between them.
A similar analysis last year, in the week before A-level results day, showed 17 of the 24 universities had vacancies on courses for English residents – a total of 3,630 courses between them – on the clearing site.
Clearing is available to students who do not meet the conditions of their offer on A-level results day, as well as those who did not receive any offers.
Students who have changed their mind about what or where they wish to study, and those who have applied outside the normal application window, can also use clearing.
“We’re expecting this summer in clearing to see both record numbers accepting a place through clearing but also we probably will see record numbers applying direct to clearing,” Jo Saxton, chief executive of Ucas, told PA.
Eight days ahead of exam results day, there was a total of 22,831 courses through clearing across 131 institutions, the PA analysis showed.
A similar analysis by PA last year – carried out at the same point before A-level results day and looking at the same range of higher education institutions – showed there were 22,698 courses through clearing across 129 institutions.
Cost-of-living concerns
It has been suggested cost-of-living concerns will be a prominent influence behind the choices students make through clearing, amid a rise in students considering living at home and working alongside their studies.
Almost nine in 10 students applying for university expect to work during term time, a survey conducted earlier this year of 2,200 applicants planning to start a full-time degree or degree apprenticeship in 2026/27 found.
The past two years of the Student Academic Experience Survey – which sees around 10,000 full-time undergraduates in the UK polled each year – showed two-thirds of students undertaking paid work.
Ucas data published in January showed 44.6% of UK 18-year-olds have made at least one choice where they intend to live at home, up from 43.2% last year, while 31% of last year’s school leavers who secured a place indicated in their application that they intended to live at home, up from 30% in 2024.
Dr Saxton said: “We think that that does relate to financial considerations.
“We know that applicants’ number one concern at the moment is cost of living, and their concern is about whether they’ll have enough money to live whilst they study, so that all wraps up together to this picture of increasing live at home.
“So again, a lot of those choices that you see in clearing are actually: ‘I’m not going to cross the country, I’m going to go to a more accessible provider to me where I live or where I can keep my part-time job’.
Adrian Dutch, a pro-vice chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire, told PA: “Students are almost confronted by the reality of the cost of going to their chosen university, and particularly if they were looking to move away from home and particularly if they were going to a big city, the cost of accommodation alone is a real game changer for some students and realistically very, very challenging to do without parental support.
“There will be people who change their minds (through clearing). I think originally that was what used to be called trading up because grades were better, but I think it’s also now around the realities of the additional costs.”
Chief executive of UUK Vivienne Stern told PA there has been “growing pressure on student finances”, highlighting the lengthy freeze of the threshold for getting the maximum amount of maintenance loan support.
Last year, experts suggested there would be competition between universities to fill places with more UK applicants, creating a “buyer’s market” for students, amid financial pressures in the sector because of uncertainty about the recruitment of overseas students, as well as years of frozen tuition fees by domestic students.
But Ms Stern said she is “optimistic” about “stabilisation” in the sector which she is hoping will make admissions more predictable than last year.
“There’s been a period in which universities had to adjust to some quite significant decreases in international student demand, for example, and that caused quite a lot of turbulence in the admissions landscape,” she told PA.
“There’s still a bit of that around but I’m optimistic that we’re beginning to see things settle down a bit.”
“I think it’s good if students have a reasonably good sense of which courses they are likely to be able to apply to successfully,” she added.
The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.