Plan ahead for the perfect place

01/08/03

Plan ahead for the perfect place

Kingston University admissions tutors are urging students to make sure they are well prepared to finalise plans for heading to university. With A-level results out shortly, the university’s student recruitment manager Anthony Allen said there was still time to consider applying for a degree.

Students with offers that depended on their A-level grades needed to know what to do as soon as results came out on August 14, he added. “On A-level results day, official lists of course vacancies will be published,” Mr Allen said. “This is the chance for people without places to find the course that is right for them. “Openings will disappear quickly though, so students have to be prepared to pick up the telephone and act fast.”

Listings are carried in the Independent, the Daily Mirror and on the University and Colleges Admissions Services (UCAS) website. Kingston University is also publishing a list of its own vacancies online at www.kingston.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/clearing/.

Students who have applied to go to university but have been unsuccessful in getting a place will automatically be sent a Clearing entry form. Mr Allen advises, however, that they should not to wait for it to arrive in the post. “The best thing for them to do is get straight on the telephone to universities running the courses they like armed with their A-level and GSCE results,” he said. “If they have the right entry points, they will speak to an admissions tutor who’ll decide whether to offer them a place.”

Students who have just missed out on the place originally offered to them should not despair either. “Some universities may able to still offer students a spot on the course they hoped to take and most will be able to suggest other options that are very similar,” Mr Allen said.

Kingston University is staging a special weekend drop-in service for students still not quite sure about their course options. Friendly, fully-trained staff will be available to talk students through the challenges of going to university and settling on the right subject. Based in the main hall at the University’s Penrhyn Road campus, the drop-in centre will be open between 11am and 3pm on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 August.