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Can you call up a uni for clearing then decline your firm/insurance choice?

So if I get declined by a uni I want to go to yet it has the degree on clearing on results day but I got accepted by my firm/insurance, can I decline my accepted uni to go into clearing?

If I can decline them, how long does it take to do this, is it simply by phone? Because I would be worried about vacancies getting taken.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 1

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by bignjuicy

If you hold an offer elsewhere then ucas rules state that other universities should not consider you for a clearing place. Sometimes universities are willing to be a bit flexible but there’s no guarantee. Particularly if a university already rejected you for a course then it’s very likely that their response in clearing would be exactly the same (unless your sole reason for rejection was low predicted grades that you exceed on results day).

If you want to enter clearing and you have a firm choice then you need to ASK them to place you into clearing. They can’t do that until your place has first been made unconditional and they are unlikely to prioritise it. On average most applicants have to wait 24-48 hours to be placed into clearing. Some have to wait considerably longer. If you don’t want to go to any of the universities that you have offers from then instead of firming an offer you don’t like decline all your offers and apply elsewhere through extra. If you still don’t get an offer you like then it’s better to be already in clearing than committed to a university you don’t want to go to.