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Adjustment - No longer offered by UCAS for 2022


Adjustment - No longer offered by UCAS for 2022



UCAS will not be offering Adjustment as an option for applicants in 2022.

Adjustment was a UCAS service in place until 2021. Through Adjustments, students who had met the conditions of all of their firm offer, and had exceeded at least one condition could hold their place and attempt to 'trade up' to a better university. The idea of this was to enable students who did considerably better than expected to apply to a university they had not previously considered.

We have a short FAQ on Adjustment - what it was, and why it no longer exists.


Why has Adjustment been discontinued?
Adjustment in theory seemed like a great idea. In reality, very few students actually used Adjustment - many considered it or even pressed the button on Track, but only a very small proportion of applicants actually ended up changing their mind and going somewhere else.

There are lots of reasons for the lack of popularity, but the main ones were:

Students had spent a year or more making the right decision for them, and in fact were very happy with their firm choice and happy to be placed there, so a last minute change was not appealing.

Adjustment listings were not publicly available. There was no way to search for Adjustment listings - applicants had to use the Clearing listing and/or just call up universities which was very labour intensive.

There were also additional considerations such as finding new accommodation and amending student finance which added extra hurdles.




I keep seeing articles and references to Adjustment, are you sure it doesn't exist?
I'm afraid so. The closure of Adjustment was not widely publicised, and for this reason references to it might still be present in school literature, printed reference materials and in some outdated online sources.

The service is no longer available to anyone, in any situation.


Will Adjustment ever return?
We can't rule it out definitively, but it seems very unlikely. In the years Adjustment was active it was never a popular choice and did not justify the resources it used.


What is the alternative for students who would have used Adjustment?
Students who would like to trade up (or go to a different university for whatever reason) would all need to use the 'decline my place' button on track to release themselves into Clearing. This is not a decision any student should take lightly, as once this process is completed, they will hold no offers and no claim to any offers that they previously held.

Applicants can still call up any university and ask if they have a place for them as they would have in the old Adjustment process - this has not changed. However, if the university is not advertising Clearing vacancies, there is a higher chance they will be unable to offer you a place.


How did Adjustment differ from using Clearing and the 'decline my place' button?
Clearing is different in that your place is not held - once you complete the 'decline my place' process, you no longer hold any place at any university and have no claim to the places you once held - they will be offered to other applicants.

This is therefore far more risky, and students should be absolutely certain they want to apply elsewhere.


If I do better than expected, how do I reduce the risk when applying elsewhere?
The first thing to do is to call universities - many will not speak to you without a Clearing ID (you don't get this until you are placed in Clearing) however this is still worth a try. Explain that you have done better than expected, and try to get an indication as to whether the university would be willing to offer you a place. Crucially, you need to find out how long the university can hold your place for, to give you time to place yourself into Clearing and add it as a choice (you can't add a Clearing choice until 3pm on Results Day).




Need more information about Clearing? Click here to see our main Clearing Self-Release FAQ Megathread!
(edited 1 year ago)

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