Clearing FAQs

Clearing officially begins on Saturday 5 July 2025. 

Clearing is a service that matches applicants to vacant university places. It runs from July to October and helps you to secure your university place for the current year.   

Clearing is open to you if:  

• You submitted your UCAS application after 30 June 
• You applied through UCAS this year but didn’t receive an offer you wanted to accept 
• Your place is not confirmed after your exam results are published.

When you apply through Clearing, you can choose one course at one institution, so you will want to be sure that you are making the best choice for you. You can contact multiple universities to see if they would welcome a Clearing application from you, and then decide which one to apply to. You should have your results to hand, as we cannot make conditional offers during Clearing.  

We can talk you through your options, even if your grades are different from the standard course requirements.  

Everything you need to do will be explained either on the phone or in your offer email.  

• Once you have spoken with one of our Clearing team, you will receive your offer email. If you don’t receive this within an hour, please check your spam/junk folders and contact us if the email hasn’t reached you. 
• Follow the instructions in your offer letter. You’ll receive guidance on how to make Surrey (S85) your Clearing choice and the deadlines you’ll be required to meet. Please note, you’ll only be able to make your Clearing choice (also known as ‘referring your application to university’) from 1pm on Thursday 14 August.
• Once you’ve referred your application, you may wish to look into options for your campus when choosing your accommodation.  
• You’ll receive an acknowledgement email the evening of the day you have referred your application to us. You will be able to set up your account on Surrey Self-Service within 24 hours of receiving the email. 
• Our Admissions team will review your application and check your qualifications against notes taken during your conversation with the Clearing team, and a final check on your application will be done before your place is confirmed. 
• Please check Surrey Self-Service  for any documentation requests which may be required before a formal offer is made. Some programmes require successful completion of an interview in order to secure a place - this will be explained to you during your call.  
• Once your formal offer has been made, further information and joining instructions will be sent to you in due course.   

Please check Surrey Self-Service to ensure you have no outstanding documents required. If you have no outstanding requests for information, get in touch via our live chat option on our Clearing page.  

Applicants are able to ‘self-release’ in UCAS Hub.​​​​ Please use this option to allow you to refer your application to us. 

If you have not yet had a decision on your application, you may wish to contact them directly or wait for this decision. You can also request to be rejected to take up an offer elsewhere, but please ensure you adhere to any deadlines in place before you give up offers elsewhere.  

We can only consider you for the programme that was stated in your Clearing offer email. It is possible to change from a three-year to a four-year option (with placement) where this is available to you. If you wish to change your programme preference, please call our Clearing call centre to receive a new offer.  

Please email our Admissions team ensuring you include your UCAS ID in the subject line and ‘referral error’ so that we can spot your emails more easily. Providing your application has been referred by the stipulated deadline we’ll be able to make this change for you.  

Please refer your application to us as soon as possible. There is no guarantee we’ll be able to offer you a place if you refer yourself after the deadline, as we’ll need to check capacities for the course. We will not withdraw the offer of a Clearing place without contacting applicants first.  

Once we’ve received your application from UCAS, we’ll do an initial check to ensure your grades meet our requirements and that we have everything we need. We may request additional information from you via Surrey Self-Service, so please ensure you provide this as quickly as possible so we can send your formal offer to UCAS.  

Usually you can expect to see your offer updated within 24 hours following referral. Some programmes require successful completion of an interview in order to secure a place - this will be explained to you during your call.  

It may be that that course is no longer available in Clearing, but provided you refer yourself to us by the deadline stated in your application, we’ll honour your offer.  

If you’ve already applied for student finance but are going to change your course or university in Clearing, you’ll need to update your application in your online account. 

It’s best to tell Student Finance England as early as possible, to make sure your first payment is available in time for the start of the academic term.  

You’ll find more advice on the government website and can talk to Student Finance England experts on Twitter and Facebook from Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm.  

We are only able to make offers based on obtained grades. If your grades don’t currently meet our requirements, please get in touch once you’ve completed the appeals process and we can discuss the options available to you.  

Once your offer has been updated on UCAS you’ll be able to apply for accommodation. Please note it can take up to 72 hours for our accommodation application system to add to recognise you. 

See our accommodation 

Once you have received a clearing offer you will be invited to a campus tour, all information will be in the offer email that you receive.

Don't worry if you can't attend a campus tour—there are other ways to explore our campus. 

Clearing gives students the opportunity to explore every course at every university which is available through UCAS. 

Clearing Plus focuses on a smaller portfolio of courses tailored to students’ UCAS application and preferences. 

We will ask:

• What course are you interested in?
• What high school qualifications do you have?
• What are your grades and have you taken an IELTS test or another English language qualification?

Please make sure you also have your UCAS number handy.  

We have places available on most of our courses, so please do get in touch! I would also advise students to choose the “with professional training year” option. Students can always change their mind later but choosing the four-year, rather than three-year course keeps that option open. 

Browse our courses

Our Admissions team will be processing results as quickly as possible and we recommend our offer holders check their UCAS Hub to see any updates on their application. 

• Start of Clearing - 5 July
• Guaranteed accommodation deadline – 25 July
• Enrolment deadline – 26 August  
• CAS deadline – TBC
• Induction week – w/c 16 September
• Courses start – 23 September  
• Last day to arrive – 4 October