Clearing in Scotland for Scots – a running tally

This post is simply to capture how the position changes on UCAS website in relation to places in Scotland for Scottish students as clearing proceeds, because this information has to be picked up in real time, as UCAS updates its site.  It will be updated periodically over the next three weeks.

Important note: the results for institutions on the UCAS website are not always the same as on institutional websites (see below for an example).

Update note Thursday 6 August: Little change since Tuesday, except in one striking case.  Heriot Watt,  which accounted for a significant number of the courses listed on the first day, has disappeared completely. The university’s own website is still listing many courses, but only for students “whose home address is within the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) 40%”.   This reveals a largely unnoticed development in Scotland, where the focus has tended to be on differential clearing for Scots/EU and the rest (including rUK).  The ring-fencing of access places is now creating a further split in the Scottish group: widening access places and the remainder.  As some of the “access” places are not being listed by UCAS (but some – such as those at Dundee – are), the UCAS site is no longer a consistent guide to available space either for those in the access group or those who aren’t. A protocol for how places ring-fenced for access are presented on the UCAS clearing site – either they are all there or none are – would surely be more helpful for students. It seems an odd thing at first sight that this is not the case.

With the Heriot Watt access places removed, UHI and UWS now account for just under three-quarters of all courses listed by UCAS. Elsewhere, there’s some ebb and flow at the margins: the one course listed at GSA has gone;  a few at UWS have also been removed; the course first listed at Napier is gone, but 4 nursing courses have been added; Digitial Media has been added at Stirling; and there’s one further course listed against UHI (though that could equally be a counting error by this author).

Update 11 August: No change to the number of courses listed for several institutions, but a sharp drop in the number still listed for QMU, from 10 to 2.  Little change recorded for UHI.  UWS still has the largest number listed (77) but this is lower than the 94 shown last Thursday.  Heriot Watt’s own website now shows no vacancies for any Scottish students, even those from disadvantaged backgrounds (see note for 6 August).  As ever, changes to the UCAS site will reflect how quickly institutions update their information, as well as what vacancies have actually been filled.

Degree courses lasting least 3 years listed as available in clearing for Scottish students