Clearing process underway at Wrexham Glyndŵr University as students receive their A Level results

It’s all systems go at Wrexham Glyndŵr University today, with staff on hand to finalise student places and guide people through the Clearing process .

Throughout the morning thousands of college and sixth form students across Wrexham and the UK have been finding out the results of their A Levels.

Locally there are celebrations with many institutions celebrating their best ever set of results.

But what happens if you didn’t get the grades you expected or are looking to find out what higher education options are available for you?

Across the country university staff are available to help those entering Clearing – a process that offers prospective students the chance to explore what options and alternatives are out there.

The Clearing process can seem intimidating at first, however Professor Claire Taylor, deputy vice-chancellor at Wrexham Glyndŵr University encouraged anyone looking to see what options are available to pick up the phone or use the webchat to get in touch with the local admissions team.

Speaking to Wrexham.com this morning, Prof Taylor said: “We’re constantly looking at the state of play in terms of applications.

“We’re very careful to make sure that we look at applications in the round – so we’re not just looking at grades, we’re looking at letters of application, references so that we understand the whole view of what the student’s bringing,

“Our admissions team on it all year round, really. And obviously, once we get through this round, for September entry, we’re already really starting to recruit for the next year. So it’s an ongoing process.”

Quick chat with the Deputy VC at @GlyndwrUni this morning about clearing and the process – lots of busy staff helping people today – hopefully lots of prospective students looking to choose Wrexham 👍 pic.twitter.com/GJAIf1aXU4

— Wrexham.com (@wrexham) August 15, 2019

At the university a team of dedicated staff are on hand to answer queries and offer guidance to prospective students.

Over the years the ways prospective students can contact the university has changed, with social media and email now providing new outlets to get in touch.

Andy Phillips, admissions manager at the university, explained that the team have been taking calls since first thing this morning and that there had been interest in a range of courses available.

Speaking about the process today, Andy explained: “We were in from half past six, the clearing lines were open at seven. So that’s in preparation for people who can access their UCAS at eight, or sometimes a bit before that.

“People do tend to call up earlier and the day before, just because they think the worst, so they’re making preparations just in case things don’t go to plan. So we have those early calls and then after eight o’clock, people have got their results and they’re calling to see what options are available to them. So it’s been pretty, pretty solid since then!

Andy also told us about the changing nature of Clearing, with calls being replaced by text communication on Facebook, web chats and other methods.

“The web chats are now quite established, and that’s proven a really popular kind of source of inquiry,” he said.

“Certainly when when I first started doing this quite a few years ago, the phone was where it was at, everyone would phone up, with banks of people on the phones here. Now, the web chat takes that, people are more comfortable on that without calling up – and that’s absolutely fine.

“We appreciate that some people prefer to do it that way, and we can we can deal with them just as easily.”

“A range of courses have been secured this morning for new students to Wrexham, Andy said: “There’s been queries about a lot of different courses.

“The most popular ones throughout the year continue to be the most popular in clearing, like physiotherapy, occupational therapy, social work and things like that. But we’ve had everything from arts engineering, computing and so on, and there is still loads of options available for people.”

There is also an Open Day taking place at Wrexham Glyndŵr University on Saturday 17th August between 10am and 2pm – something prospective students still considering their options are being encouraged to attend.

Prof Taylor said: The key thing is prospective students can talk to students – so students who are here already.

“You can have a look around the facilities, talk to academic tutors, who actually ask detailed questions around your what will I be studying, what’s the course content, what facilities will I be able to get my hands on.

“We’ve got some specialist talks on as well, with different types of introductions to different subject areas.

“So even if people aren’t quite sure, exactly what they want to do, and it should help the decision making.”

Wrexham Glyndŵr University is currently going through a significant transition period, with its Campus 2025 redevelopment set to see the introduction of new student accommodation and facilities at its site on Plas Coch.

Asked why prospective students should consider studying in Wrexham, Prof Taylor said the main selling point is the supportive ethos, which is created by being a smaller university.

“Students are absolutely essential to everything that we do,” she added.

“We pride ourselves on being inclusive, accessible. We are investing in the campus, so we’re in the middle of a 60 million pound business program at the moment.

“Spaces like the gallery, we’ve got the study downstairs, we’ve just refurbished a whole corridor of new teaching spaces, which will be open on Saturday for people to see.

“But really coming to Wrexham Glyndŵr University is about being part of the community, getting involved in things, contributing, enjoying the academic studies but also getting involved in other activities as well.”