Glasgow University, along with several other Russell Group members, offered places through UCAS Clearing this year for students from England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
Two thirds of the twenty-four member Russell Group entered clearing this year. Last year, Russell Group members opened up to clearing for this first time – it is rare that any of the institutions have resorted to such measures.
The move follows a slight change in recruitment guidelines for higher education. The government now allows universities to enrol an unlimited number of students with ABB+ or equivalent grades. Changes have also meant students from countries outwith Scotland can be specifically targeted.
A spokesman for the University of Glasgow said: “Because the University of Glasgow consistently fills all of the funded places for Scottish students allocated to it by the Scottish Funding Council, we have not entered Clearing for many years.
“However, we are now able to offer remaining places to well qualified RUK or International students through the Clearing system.”
Whilst six Russell Group universities entered Clearing last year, Glasgow remained in a strong position. A statement from the University last year said: “We have not been involved in clearing for some years on our main campus site… We have no reason to believe that this position will change in the future.”
This year, with the introduction of these changes in conjunction with tuition fee increases, places have been made available at the main campus of the University of Glasgow. Previously, a small number of places have only been available at the Dumfries campus. At the time of writing, 502 places were still available on the main campus.
There were no places available through clearing for Scottish students on the main campus, with the exception of Product Design Engineering – which is jointly with the Glasgow School of Art.
In addition to allowing unlimited amount of students with AAB+ grades to enter university, the list of qualifications recognised in place of said grades has been altered. Acceptable qualifications now include the Cambridge Pre-U, Access to HE Diploma, Advanced Diploma, Edexcel BTEC National Diploma in Early Years Education and CACHE Level 3.
