It's that time of year again, when hopeful university students need to make sure their UCAS applications are submitted on time. Most undergraduate courses require that their applications are received by UCAS no later than close of play on Sunday January 15th, 2017, although the deadline is extended to March 24th for certain arts and design courses. UCAS - the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service - is the online processing system for higher education applications in the UK. For more helpful information for both students and parents and for details of a telephone helpline, please refer to their website (ucas.com)
On receipt of your application, the five universities you have chosen (and you should certainly make sure to take advantage of the opportunity to make five choices) will decide whether or not to make you an offer of a place on your chosen course. You may also be asked to attend an interview at this point. If an offer is made, whether it be an unconditional offer or one based on the meeting of certain entry requirements, you will be expected to accept or reject it by a certain date.
In the event that no offer - or no acceptable offer - is made by your five chosen universities, you will have the opportunity to use what is known as an 'Extra', allowing you to add one extra university to your application, between 25 February and the beginning of July. After which there is also the option of applying through Clearing from July to September. Clearing is the system by which universities and colleges ensure that any remaining places are filled.
Extra and Clearing are also the best avenues to pursue if you happened to have missed the initial application deadline.
What do I do if I receive no offers?
If you don't receive an offer from any of your chosen universities, there are various options available to you. First of all, you may contact the admissions staff of a specific institution and request feedback on why your application was not successful.
If you feel that your application was dealt with unfairly, you may also wish to challenge the decision. It's important to remember that you are within your rights under UK law to launch an appeal. Most universities will have formal appeal or complaint procedures in place, and although the grounds for these appeals often differ slightly from university to university, they tend to cover the following broad areas: discrimination, procedural irregularity and deviation from the official admissions policy.
If you do wish to launch an appeal, be careful to check the deadlines for doing so, which again will differ according to the specific institution.
At Match Solicitors, we have advised a great many students on their admissions decisions appeals, helping to prepare students for hearings and liaising with university representatives on their behalf. Whether these cases revolve around procedural irregularities, discrimination issues or something else entirely, our team of specialist higher education solicitors will do their utmost to help students avoid the worst-case scenario of having to wait a whole year to find a place at university.
If you have any queries regarding university admissions, don't hesitate to give us a call at Match today.
