Post by Dave"...we actually had someone with the specific job of making
the subject sound hard and mathematical to put off the unsuitable"
Very interesting Mr Huntbach.... would those be the ones you wouldn't
release into clearing?
If a student didn't want to do the course because he or she had a major
misunderstanding about what it involved and wasn't really prepared to
do what is entailed in academic Computer Science, I would be happy to
release that student into clearing. However, it would be much better for
both the student and us had the student never made us their Firm or
Insurance choice in the first place.
Releasing a student into clearing means that a place one had thought was
filled and had rejected other students for because it was thought to be filled
becomes empty at a time when there are few new enquiries and so it is very
difficult to fill it with a suitable student. If a large number of students
request to be released into clearing, the consequences are that a
department has fewer students than it planned for. Ultimately this
could mean people losing their jobs because the funding the department
has, which pays for its staff salaries, depends on the number of
students it has. Do you think I as an admissions tutor should lightly
agree to students breaking the rules they had agreed to in such a way
that people's jobs are on line?
Release into clearing is meant to be done only under exceptional
circumstances so that the one or two students who might unexpectedly be
lost in that way do not have a serious effect on department finances.
However, it seems increasingly students are believing that release into
clearing should be granted automatically just because they ask for it.
All I am asking is that students keep to their side of the deal in the UCAS
system just as universities keep to ours - we agree to give students the
place they accepted, we don't turn round at the start of term and say
"sorry, we've had some better students apply in clearing, so we've decided
not to give you a place after all"; students should agree to take the
place they've made their choice under the UCAS system and not turn round
at the last minute and say "sorry, I've found somewhere else in clearing,
so I'm not coming to your university".
I've checked my records, and this year I've had 10 students requesting
release into clearing, not one of them for a reason that is justified
under the rules which UCAS sets down and students are supposed to have
agreed to when they signed their UCAS form. With an intake of just over
a hundred students, that has had a serious effect on numbers and quite
likely will damage our department. The reality is, however, that if
students make a big fuss and ring up shouting abuse over the phone if
you won't release them into clearing - as several of these did - there is
not much you can do, except agree to their request even though under the
rules that UCAS sets down you are not supposed to.
Funnily enough, one of the students who made a huge fuss about being
released into clearing to go somewhere "better" (i.e. a couple of
places higher in some newspaper league table) decided he didn't like it
there and is currently making a huge fuss to get released again and come
back to us.
Matthew Huntbach