After the disruption of the pandemic and half a year of growing tensions on international recruitment and university finances we enter the annual UK university trolley dash known as clearing. It has become as heavily trailed as Black Friday or Cyber Monday and is an equally depressing sales event with overhyped bargains leading to buyer’s carrying both remorse and significant debt. After a show of unity to preserve the international graduate route, universities will show us that there is no love lost between institutions when it comes to manipulating domestic students into a panic purchase.
We have already seen the trumpeting of “Russell Group universities with plenty of clearing places” to remind us of a hierarchy conditioned by meaningless league tables, government policy failures, and media dumbing down. Meanwhile, institutions outside that charmed circle are putting in place the slick enrolment machine that is willing to take as many marginal calls as necessary to fill the places. Clearing in 2024 is, more than ever, the sign of a near bankrupt system using tactics that resemble the worst of closing down sales.
Early bird offers, VIP packages, prize draws, personal guidance, priority call-backs are all in the mix as institutions choose the tactics of double-glazing sales rather than focusing on the quality of their academic offer. The shame is that they are dealing mainly with young people facing a life-changing decision at one of the most vulnerable times of their life to date. When institutions will go to these lengths it is difficult to see that their advice will be impartial but some of the tactics seem to fly close to the wind in other areas protected by consumer law.
Pressure to Close
Areas on the radar of the Competition and Markets Authority include false urgency and price reduction claims from online sellers. Students are undoubtedly told they need to move quickly and that there are grade reductions available to the swift. Last year it was Clare Marchant, Chief Executive of UCAS, advising students to be “pretty quick off the mark” while this year she is the vice-chancellor of the University of Gloucestershire offering a prize draw where one “clearing VIP” will get a year of free accommodation.
This year we find other industry pundits saying “pupils “who act fast” after getting their results “could find many university courses still open.” It is poor advice to give someone who is making one of the biggest decisions of their life. An average undergraduate emerges with around £50,000 of debt, spends three years of time and has no certainty of any payback.
To put that in context, the maximum jail sentence for possession of a Class C drug is just two years. Brentford FC striker Ivan Toney got an eight month ban and £50,000 fine for 232 breaches of betting rules last year. Surely the sector would do better to advise young people taking such major decisions that they must think long and hard about their actions.
When It’s Gone, It’s Gone
Clearing is presented as a massive opportunity for students but is really a game played to rules set by the universities and the odds favour the house. Reading that “the UK’s leading universities” have nearly 4,000 courses in clearing compared to only 2,000 last year sounds like a good thing for choice. But nowhere does it say how many places are actually available for each courses.
That’s because each university wants the maximum numbers to choose from and will keep on fishing until it either meets a number it has set for that course or that will balance out to achieve an overall target between courses. The student making an application has no idea if they are in a competition with 100 others for two places or the sole applicant for a course seeking 100 students. Knowing if your chances are one in fifty or a near certainty would seem a reasonable and is a requirement of The Gambling Commission for virtual games of chance.
Inflated Anchor Prices
This is the phrase used when a store shows a “regular” or “original” price to demonstrate how much value its sale price offers. Most countries have legislation in place to prevent stores promoting misleadingly high anchor prices that have only been charged in exceptional, limited circumstances. The university published tariff is really just the equivalent of an anchor price and its relationship to reality isn’t very transparent.
The UCAS move to have “real grades” shown seems a good idea but using historical data is next to useless and UCAS itself is clear that “as the data is based on previous years it shouldn’t be used as an indication of how likely you are to get a place on a course now.” UCAS research indicates that 49% of students are accepted on university courses with grades “lower than the entry requirements.” But this may be made up of a number of factors – students given an offer below the published requirements, students who miss their offered grades but get accepted and then students who are taken at lower grades to fill spaces.
It would be appropriate, meaningful and possible with technology for universities to provide real time data on entry qualifications that they are accepting. This would prevent a false market developing as university advertising and promotional material remains a step behind reality. It would also mean that students get better transparency when making their choices.
Bait And Switch
In England and Wales, bait and switch is banned under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008. The practise involves a retailer luring a consumer into believing they can buy a product at a low price when there is insufficient or no stock available. Classically, the trader then attempts to ‘up-sell’ to a higher priced product.
For universities in clearing, the lack of transparency on actual grade requirements and numbers of places available means that a headline course needing one or two additional students can draw in significant interest. Some students calling might be told the course is already full but that there is a very similar course in the same faculty available in clearing. It’s the sort of thing that can happen at other points of the but under the time pressure of clearing the student may be easier to persuade to switch course.
A Conspiracy of (Near) Silence
For universities the onus is on filling the seats available. This wholly undermines the much-touted notion that every domestic student recruited comes at a deficit of over £3,000. The claim is so crass that it is difficult to believe supposedly intelligent people make it so regularly.
But to get an inside voice on the tactics and the motivators one needs the disarming honesty of a director of recruitment who is not too close to the white heat of combat. Step forward Mike Nicholson, director of recruitment at the University of Cambridge, who says that by choice universities will start by selecting students with a place already offered who “narrowly missed” grades. Only after that might they go into clearing if absolutely necessary and because they “..have a very clear sense of what their numbers are this year, what they’ve got to achieve to balance the books.”
In a nutshell, universities are in it for the money and it is not in their interests to share information on availability of places or grades required with students. The pre-qualification offer process that institutions have defended for so long gives them plenty of room for maneuver and the wholly undeserved opportunity to appear generous when they accept applicants with lower grades. It is another feature that undermines belief in the fairness and transparency of higher education.
Over and above that we have examples of students who went to university as a result of opportunities in clearing but found the outcome less than optimal. At a point in time when some universities are seeing a growth in the numbers of students dropping out there should be real concern that clearing is creating conditions that attract students who will struggle to complete the course. For some, the consequences can be devastating.
But the lessons of acting with overdue haste in clearing may be at the heart of a broader problem for the sector. Even those who may not have taken a snap decision at clearing are reconsidering whether a degree was the right choice for them. When 78% say they have “considered leaving university during their studies” it’s time for everyone to slow down before taking the plunge.
