Julian's Clearing experience

I decided to return to university after several years away from education. What I wanted to study became clear quite quickly, knowing what to do next was slightly less so.

I had waited until the last minute to apply and I was conscious that my only option was to go through Clearing. I was hesitant as I did not know where to start. Thankfully, I was able to find a wide range of information on the UCAS website about my course of interest Medical Sciences. However, I soon discovered I needed to contact individual universities to obtain more information on my eligibility for the course.

Once I had contacted UCLan and spoke with the Admissions team, the next steps were made very clear. I found the team to be extremely helpful in answering my individual questions and pointing me in the right direction. They quickly established the best course of action based on my eligibility, then instructed me on how to go about applying, what to do in the meantime and the different teams to contact at various times within the process to make life easier for me.

As I was moving from Birmingham, accommodation was something high on my to do list. I had to sort out my accommodation quickly, but the Accommodation team were on hand to make this as straight forward as possible. They went through my preferences and availability with me and in the end, I chose to use one of their approved private landlords in Burnley.

Applying for Student Finance was quite a daunting prospect and admittedly, there were some delays due to the pandemic and how late I had applied. Although the Finance team at the University were such a huge help to me. I’ll always remember a lovely lady helping me with a few issues I had and liaising directly with Student Finance England on my behalf. They also helped me to find out what I could be entitled to and how to go about accessing those resources.

If you find yourself going through Clearing for whatever reason, my best piece of advice would be to ring the Clearing hotline and talk through your options with a member of staff. Through my conversations with the Admissions team I was able to find out more about my course and that it was in line with what I ultimately wanted to achieve. Speaking to the various teams from finance, accommodation etc all gave me a feel for the university too as a friendly and approachable place, which was extremely important.