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Making the final choice

How university rankings can help you through Clearing

Discover how using our league tables as part of your Clearing research can help you find the right course for you

CLEARING CLEARING AND RESULTS DAY CLEARING FOR STUDENTS LEAGUE TABLES

Philip Circuit 02 Aug 2023

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What is Clearing?
Why use Clearing?
Can league tables help me find a place through Clearing?
Filter the tables
Before Results day

What is Clearing?

Clearing matches universities that have places to offer with students who have not met their expected grades, who decide they’d like to do a different course, who have done better than expected, or those considering university later and who want to apply directly to the university.

Going through Clearing can be daunting no matter your circumstance, but using our university league tables can help you make informed decisions about which courses to apply for.

Why use Clearing?

Many students find a course that suits them better through Clearing. There's a wide range of universities with places available in Clearing, giving you the chance to find a course at a university you’d hoped to go to or a completely different opportunity at a university you may never have considered.

You can apply directly into Clearing, meaning you can apply for a Clearing course when you haven’t already applied for university, with or without going through UCAS. Any student applying to university for the first time after the 30 June deadline will have to make a direct Clearing application.

Can league tables help me find a place through Clearing?

Our league tables can play a part in helping you choose a university. They help you identify and refine your list of unis and, ultimately, your university shortlist – overall and by subject area.

You can see how well a uni ranks for your chosen subject area, and use the graduate prospects or research measures, or discover how satisfied students are with the quality of teaching they receive.

While Clearing is open you will be able to see the universities who are offering Clearing courses as they’ll be have “IN CLEARING” added in the league tables.

The Complete University Guide gives you three types of league table:

University League Tables

This is the main table, comparing, or ranking, 130 UK universities overall. Our league tables can help by showing you the top universities in the UK and allowing you to sort them by what's important to you. See the university rankings for your chosen subject and then filter by region, entry standards, student satisfaction, graduate prospects, and more. By comparing universities using our filters and your chosen metrics, you can start to get a clear picture of which one is the right one for you.

Arts, Drama & Music League Table

This table focusses on 12 specialist colleges and conservatoires. Our Arts, Drama & Music league table ranks 12 specialist colleges and conservatoires. You can sort them by region and compare to find the right one for you.

Subject League Tables

These tables compare unis across 74 different subject areas. You can search by region, entry standards, student satisfaction, graduate prospects, and more.

Filter the tables

Above each table you’ll find buttons you can use to filter the tables to get the most out of your search. In each of the tables you can filter by several metrics including subject area, UK region, or university group. You can filter by more than one category. If you’ve filtered a table, the button will be highlighted. You’ll find subject and region filters at the top and the foot of the tables.

Filter by the measures that matter to you

You can also filter our league tables by the measures along the top. Follow the links to see the tables measured by the different filters explained below:

Overall score – this is the universities total score calculated by our trusted methodology.

Entry standards – This shows the average UCAS tariff score of the students entering the university.

Student satisfaction – This shows how satisfied the students are with the quality of teaching they receive at the university.

Research quality – This is a measure of the quality of research at the university.

Research intensity – This shows the number of staff involved in high quality research at the university.

Academic services spend - This shows how much the university spends on supporting services such as IT and libraries.

Facilities spend – This shows how much the university spends on supporting things like careers centres and sports facilities.

Continuation – This shows the number of first year students that continue their studies.

Student/staff ratio – This shows the average staffing levels at the university.

Graduate prospects-outcomes – This is the success of the graduates after they leave the university.

Graduate prospects-on track – This is a measure of whether recent graduates agree that their current activity fits with their future plans.

Before Results day

Before results day have a look at our subject league tables. If you need to go through Clearing it will help to start with what you think you’d like to study. You can find the top universities that offer this subject and find out which one will be best suited to you. Our subject league tables compare unis across 74 different subject areas.