A Guide to Medicine Clearing

What Is Clearing?

UCAS Clearing allows students to apply for university course places which haven’t been filled yet. You might want to consider Clearing if you’ve received no university offers, or if you’ve changed your mind at the last minute about what or where you’d like to study.

Clearing for 2023 opens on July 5th.

Can I Find A Medicine Place Through Clearing?

Clearing is becoming an increasingly uncommon pathway to Medicine because there is such a high demand for places that there are simply no unfilled seats. Last year there wasn’t a single Medicine place available through Clearing.

It’s no surprise that you can’t find a Medicine place through Clearing: there were over 6,000 more applicants for 2023 entry Medicine than five years earlier – an increase of around 29%.

Instead of looking for Medicine courses in Clearing, it’s a good idea to look for something related, such as Biomedical Science or Biochemistry. This could be a good way to ultimately end up on a Medicine course. Take a look at the story of this student who got a place at Swansea through Clearing a couple of years ago and went on to get a place for Graduate Entry Medicine after graduating.

What Are The Options?

If you didn’t get into Medicine this year, you might want to think about:

• Applying for a Medicine-related course through Clearing, which could lead you to Graduate Entry Medicine later
• Applying for an Allied Health course through Clearing, which would lead you to another healthcare-related career
• Taking a year out and reapplying for Medicine next year
• Studying Medicine abroad

How Do I Make An Application Through Clearing?

Applying for university through Clearing is relatively straightforward. You can also find out more about Clearing on the UCAS website. 

1. Use the UCAS search function to search for course vacancies. These could be snapped up fast – so the quicker you contact the universities, the better!
2. Contact the universities you’re interested in and ask them if they will accept you.
3. If the university will accept you, you need to upload the details of the course under ‘Your choices’ and then ‘Add a Clearing choice’ in Track.

What Should I Do Before Results Day?

1. Make sure you have your Clearing number and UCAS Personal ID number (these can be found on your UCAS Track under ‘Your Choices’ so make a note of this beforehand), your predicted grades, your Personal Statement and your GCSE results. You could print these out if necessary.
2. Have a pen and paper to jot things down while you’re on the phone.
3. If you have an idea of the universities you might like to contact, make sure you research them before you call them – you may be asked why you want to attend that particular university or do that particular course on the phone, so make sure you have an answer!
4. Remember to charge your phone before results day – you’ll need it to call the universities!