Risky application strategy cost students university places, says clearing chief

Thousands of teenagers have missed out on a degree place this year because they received poor advice and set themselves unrealistic goals, the head of the university admissions service claims today. Almost 181,000 applicants are still in clearing, the process that matches students who missed their offers or applied late to unfilled places on degree courses. It represents nearly 27% of those who applied for a university place for this autumn. This time last year, just over 132,000 applicants were in clearing – 21% of those who applied. The number of vacancies is not known, but is said to be falling fast. Just over 12,344 students have withdrawn from the application system, compared to 9,818 this time last year. Applicants are allowed to list a preferred university and a back-up institution, known as their insurance choice. The insurance choice usually requires lower grades and is used in case they miss the marks demanded of their first-choicechoice university. But Mary Curnock Cook, the chief executive of Ucas, told the Guardian that many young people this year had narrowed their chances by picking an insurance institution that required the same grades as their top choice. This gave them no leeway if they failed to achieve the grades demanded by their top-choice university, she said. She warned that students may have been misinformed about how to maximise their chances of a place. Others will have set themselves unrealistic goals. "I think there is quite a lot of improper usage of the insurance choice," Curnock Cook said. "The advice is to list an insurance university that has lower grades than your top choice. But there is some evidence that the insurance choice isn't being used in that way. "We need to make sure that young people have good advice from a number of sources, including their parents. It is not just teachers who give them advice. We have to get better information into the system because the system is becoming more competitive. People do need to make realistic choices." The Institute for Career Guidance agreed that students had adopted the risky strategy of leaving themselves no leeway in case of a missed grade. Andy Gardner, from the institute, said teenagers want to go to a university that has a good reputation because they have heard this will give them the best chance of a graduate job afterwards, yet the universities with the best reputations all demand high grades. "All those prestigious universities want three As or two As and a B," he said. "Students need to be realistic because these universities are not going to be flexible if they even slightly miss their grades." Gardner said students' insurance choices should reflect the grades they have achieved in their AS-levels – the exams at the end of the first year of sixth form. Alan Bullock, head of student information services at Havant College in Hampshire, said it was not always possible to persuade students to think "slightly outside the box in terms of course choice or university choice". He said: "If you apply for competitive subjects like economics or English at universities who are all close to the top of the league tables, then however outstanding your grades the margins are going to be extremely tight and there will be very little leeway. "We always try to encourage our students to strike a careful balance between aspiration and realism and not to be misled by superficial perceptions about what is a 'good' university." He added that it was becoming more important for university applicants to thoroughly research their insurance choice. Curnock Cook said clearing had been "fast and furious" this year and that more than 150,000 students would either abandon their application for this autumn or be left without a place in the coming weeks. At some universities, the majority of unfilled places are only open to non-UK and non-European Union students, who pay higher fees. At Kent University, for example, 61 courses have vacancies, but just four of these are open to UK and EU students.