UCAS Adjustment: What to know for 2021

What is a UCAS Adjustment? Before we answer that question, let’s take a look at what Clearing is. Clearing matches applicants to university places that are yet to be filled — it’s available to anyone who has made a UCAS undergraduate application and doesn’t hold any offers, notes UCAS.

The UCAS Clearing process helps applicants find these places with ease and get into the right course and university in the UK after school-leaving exams. This year, Clearing is open from July 5 to October 19. 

This means that if you don’t get the grade for a particular course you’re applying to, Clearing gives you a chance on another course at the same or different institution. 

What happens when you’ve done better than you expected? You can consider a UCAS Adjustment. Both Clearing and Adjustment allows you to switch courses or universities, but the former is for students who didn’t meet the conditions of their conditional offer. 

Below, we take a look at what you need to know about UCAS Adjustment:

What is UCAS Adjustment?

It’s the chance for you to apply for an alternative course and university if you’ve met and exceeded conditions for your firm choice. UCAS notes that Adjustment is entirely optional — students can expect a lot of competitive courses to be full, but it’s worth noting that other applicants might have missed their conditions or swapped a course too, so it could be worth seeing what’s available.

Who can apply?

If you hold a conditional offer that exceeds the requirements of it, you can apply for a UCAS Adjustment. This is done through your UCAS Track account. You can only do this if you have already decided on results day. 

 

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When is the deadline?

Adjustment will be available until August 18 of this year. Once you register for UCAS Adjustment, you’ll have five days to find and accept a new uni offer, starting from when your conditional firm (CF) offers changes to unconditional firm (UF), or on A level publication day – whichever is the later. 

How do I apply?

Before applying for UCAS Adjustment, seek advice from an adviser at your school, college, centre or careers office to see if its a good idea for you. You can also contact the universities you’ve shortlisted to gather more information on the courses that you’re considering.

UCAS notes that if a university or college offers you a place over the phone, you just need to accept the offer verbally. You can only have one Adjustment offer, and it’s the university or college that will add themselves to your application. If the university is happy to accept you, your Track screen will be updated with the new choice. If not, you can continue to look until your Adjustment time limit is up, which means you’ll just keep your original place.