Clearing update: hundreds of students accept places

Nearly 6,000 calls were taken by our Clearing call centre this year, as more than 1,500 offers to study at Reading were made as part of this year’s student recruitment campaign.

Our annual Clearing activity seeks to invite those left without a university place, or who wish to change their university or course choice, on A-level results day to study at Reading. It is a valuable opportunity to fill remaining spaces on courses and increase our overall student numbers.

Clearing is the culmination of our recruitment and admissions cycle that begins the previous year, with colleagues working to promote Reading as a place to study, engage with and support applicants, and convert this interest into confirmed places.

Since Thursday, around 600 applicants who had achieved our minimum required grades have accepted places at Reading through Clearing, with each Clearing acceptance adding to our overall intake.

Professor Dominik Zaum, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Academic Planning and Resource, said: ”A big thank you to all colleagues who have worked tirelessly on recruitment throughout the year, including the many volunteers who worked in the busy call centre on Thursday and Friday taking calls from applicants in the UK and around the world, and those who helped with Clearing visits on Friday.”

This year’s recruitment campaign supports our increased student recruitment targets and progress towards our longer-term goal of increasing our international student numbers.

What happens next?

We look forward to welcoming our new student intake in a few weeks’ time, with Welcome activities from 23 September 2024.

While Clearing was busy, , we won’t get a clear picture of our student intake until the start of the 2024/25 academic year.

As ever, some students who have received offers may not accept them or ultimately take up their place at Reading. Postgraduate student applications do not revolve around the same deadlines as those for undergraduates, and so we will continue to receive applications and acceptances for 2024/25 right up to the end of September.

There are recruitment challenges facing all universities this year, such as UK immigration policy changes and economic pressures in countries that usually provide large numbers of international students to the UK.

We will update colleagues in the coming weeks on our overall student recruitment performance, as our numbers become more certain.