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Clearing offers you a chance to find a full-time undergraduate course to start this September. Thousands of students find their university place through Clearing every year, so you wouldn’t be alone in exploring your options.
Clearing opens at the beginning of July each year. From 5 July 2025, you can apply for a course using Clearing if you’re not already holding an offer from a university or college, and the course still has places, or you’ve declined your firm place using the ‘decline my place’ button in your application. If you don't have your results yet, you can apply to see if you can be given a provisional offer. We aim to make you a provisional offer of a place while you’re waiting for your exam results. Providing you meet the terms of your provisional offer; your place will be confirmed after results day when you share your results with us.
If you want to wait until you have your results, you can apply from 14 August by calling 0121 331 6777. We advise you to research your course options early though so that you are prepared when A Level/BTEC Results Day arrives.
Clearing usually closes at the beginning of October or when the courses in Clearing are full.
A university will publish a list of the courses which have places available to start in the coming September. You can apply for the course either online or by calling the university's Clearing hotline which opens on A Level/BTEC Results Day (Thursday 14 August).
If you have the required results for the course, you can be made an offer in Clearing. Once you have been made an offer, you will receive an email from the university which explains what you need to do next to accept your offer and make arrangements for student finance or accommodation if you need it.
There are many reasons why you might want to apply for university in Clearing:
You change your mind about the course you’ve already applied for
You change your mind about the university you've already applied for
Your results are not what you expected (this could be worse, or better than you thought!)
Results day is Thursday 14 August 2025. You can usually log on to your UCAS Hub account on the morning of results day to find out whether your status has changed and if you have met your offer; however, this won’t give you any details about how many UCAS tariff points you have. If you call a university Clearing hotline, you will need to have your grades in order to get an offer for a place; however, you can call us before and we’ll be happy to advise you on your potential options.
Not all university courses have places in Clearing as they may already be full for this September. Once you've found a course that you’re interested in, you'll need to check that you have the UCAS tariff points stated and any other specific entry requirements for the course. Sometimes the UCAS tariff points for Clearing are different to the main UCAS entry requirements.
2) Apply
From 5 July 2025, you can apply for a course using Clearing if you’re not already holding an offer from a university or college, and the course still has places, or you’ve declined your firm place using the ‘decline my place’ button in your application. If you don't have your results yet, you can still apply to see if you can be given a provisional offer. We aim to make you a provisional offer of a place while you’re waiting for your exam results. Providing you meet the terms of your provisional offer, your place will be confirmed after results day when you share your results with us.
If you want to wait until you have your results, you can apply either online or by calling the university's Clearing hotline on 0121 331 6777, which opens on A Level/BTEC Results Day (Thursday 14 August). We advise you to research your course options early so that you are prepared when A Level/BTEC Results Day arrives.
Your application
Applicants will be able to see changes in their UCAS Hub from 8am on 14 August. This will allow applicants to see if they have been placed at their firm or insurance choice or are in Clearing.
If you hold an offer with Birmingham City University and want to see if you can change to another course with us, you must put this request in writing to our Admissions team via our online form.
Please do not decline your place on your existing course at BCU or use Clearing to try and change your course if you hold a firm or insurance offer with us. This can affect any accommodation arrangements you may have and your eligibility for an undergraduate scholarship (for 2025/26 entry this is the Accelerate or High Achiever Scholarship) if you met the criteria for it. Applicants who receive an offer through Clearing will not be eligible for the scholarship.
No. As you already hold an offer for that course, you should not use Clearing to confirm your place on it if your offer is still showing as conditional. You should provide us with proof of your results as it is likely that we may not have received them from UCAS, or you have taken a qualification which UCAS don’t provide results for, and we need you to provide them to us instead.
If you hold a conditional offer with Birmingham City University, and have received confirmation of all of the exam results for the qualifications needed for the conditions of your offer, please upload proof of your results to our mySRS Portal and our Admissions team will check these as soon as they possibly can.
Please do not use Clearing to try and confirm your place if you hold a firm or insurance offer with us as this can affect your eligibility for an undergraduate scholarships if you met the criteria for it. Applicants who receive an offer through Clearing will not be eligible for the scholarship.
If we have not been able to confirm your place on results day, we will send you an email on the morning of results day in August telling you and informing you of the reason why and if there is anything we need you to do. Please make sure that you have read this email carefully so you know why your offer is still conditional.
If you haven't received your results yet please get back in touch when you have your results. GCSEs are not published until 21 August. As soon as you have received your GCSE results, check our website for course availability information in Clearing and call our Clearing Hotline if places are available and you would like to apply.
The deadline to apply for year two or three was 30 June and we are unable to consider applications after this date for the coming September. If you wish to apply for next September, please apply via UCAS. Please see Advanced Entry for further details.
We’re really busy at the moment, as I’m sure you can understand. We’re processing everything as fast as we can so please be patient, someone will get back to you as soon as possible.
If you’ve done better than you thought and want to change universities, you can decline your place in your application to go through Clearing instead.
If you want to change your course to a different one at Birmingham City University, you must put this request in writing to our Admissions team via our online form. Please do not decline your place on your existing course at BCU or use Clearing to try and change your course if you hold a firm or insurance offer with us. This can affect any accommodation arrangements you may have and your eligibility for an undergraduate scholarship (for 2025/26 entry this is the Accelerate or High Achiever Scholarship) if you met the criteria for it. Applicants who receive an offer through Clearing will not be eligible for the scholarship.
No, it won’t affect your application. But please record it on your application form and someone from the Enablement Team will be in touch to discuss this in further detail and will be able to provide the information you need.
Whilst it is sometimes possible to transfer between courses within the University, this can only be done within a small time frame if you were to want to change shortly after starting a course. It also depends on whether or not places are available on the other course and whether or not you would meet the entry requirements for that course. Therefore, we would stress that we cannot guarantee that switching courses will be possible and you should ensure that you choose the course you want to apply for carefully and be aware that you may not be able to change from it if you change your mind.
If you already have your qualification results and the January intake has vacancies advertised in Clearing, you can apply now. If you are waiting for qualification results, please check with us once you have received confirmation of these so we can advise about the most appropriate method to apply at that time.
If you have a foundation year but don't have enough UCAS points from A Levels, please call the Clearing hotline on 0121 331 6777 so we can pass you through to the faculty to make a decision.
After receiving an offer
Your offer email should be with you within an hour of you receiving the offer. If it has been longer please contact our admissions team, who will check your details.
Your offer is guaranteed for 24 hours, which gives you time to add BCU as your Clearing choice on UCAS. However, if you don’t action your offer by the time that 24 hours is up, we can no longer guarantee that a place will be available for you. The offer will still be valid but will be dependent on whether there are still places on that course by the time you add the choice on UCAS.
Try not to panic, your place is yours, we won’t give it away in a hurry. However, try to put your offer into UCAS as quickly as possible. You can decline your place and enter into Clearing through UCAS Track so you don't need to wait for another university to release you. If you're having problems, please email our admissions team and let them know.
You will have to upload details into the enrolment portal or bring them on your first day.
We’re really busy at the moment, as we're sure you can understand. We’re processing everything as fast as we can so please be patient
Some courses ask for an interview before they give you a place. You should have all the information about where you’re going and what you’re doing, but if you don’t please get in touch with the department. Find out how a Clearing interview works.
Contact the department directly, they’ll be able to help you.
The interviewer should have told you when you can expect to hear back from us. We try to make a decision quickly. If you haven’t heard after a couple of days, get in touch with the department directly.
Accommodation
Find out how to apply for accommodation here. Accommodation is guaranteed if you apply by 13 September 2025.
We can't be specific about where you will be placed for accommodation as it depends on what rooms are still available. You can find out more about the different options we offer on our Accommodation page.
I don't like this accommodation - can I move?
We have a variety of accommodation options close to our campuses. They have different price points, social spaces and flat sizes so you can choose the right one for you. But if you’d like to live in private accommodation, we’d recommend looking at BCUSU’s website, which can help you find somewhere to live.
Student Finance
You can read more about how to apply for student finance here - it’s very easy to do!
You can read more about scholarships and bursaries here and the financial support available to undergraduates here.
Contact Student Finance in order to notify them of any changes to the course and/ or institution you are applying for. Further information about making changes to your student finance application can be found online.
Enrolment
Once your offer is confirmed, you'll get an email soon explaining how to enrol with step-by-step instructions, so keep an eye out!
It should be with you soon, once your offer has been confirmed. But, if you email admissions with your UCAS ID, full name and correct email address they can check we’ve got the right email address for you.
If you’re stuck on enrolment please email enrolment@bcu.ac.uk and they’ll be able to help you!
Your student ID card will be sent in the post to you once you've completed your online enrolment. If it is not possible to send your student ID card in the post, you will be sent some information about when and where to collect your student ID card.
You can ask your Faculty/School to change this for you and re-send the invitation email. You can find contact details for your subject area on our website.
You will have been given an induction/enrolment date on the enrolment portal, but you can also search for the date for your course. The page will tell you when and where to attend and what to bring with you to complete your enrolment.
As long as you’ve completed the online process of your enrolment, you will have access to our systems including your BCU email, our internal web portal iCity and our online learning platform Moodle.
You will find your network login details within your personal details on the enrolment portal.
You will need to contact your Faculty/School admin team about this.
Induction information will also be available on your timetable, which you can access on iCity from the end of August.
You will receive an email to your BCU inbox over the next couple of weeks inviting you to enrol. You can do this online on MySRS and it only takes 10 minutes.
You will need to contact your School Office about this.
You will need to contact your Faculty/School admin team about this.
The start of term
You will be sent your timetable closer to the start of term with details of when you have classes on campus. You'll be able to access your timetable on iCity or on the iBCU app, so long as you've completed your online enrolment.
The majority of courses will start on Monday 22 September, but you will also need to attend your course induction beforehand, which you can search for here.
You should attend the course activities and lectures that are planned, as you may miss important information if you skip them. However, you don’t have to attend the social activities but we highly recommend going to a few, especially the societies and clubs fair so you can get involved in other activities! Read more about Welcome Week here.
Not all courses have a reading week, so we would recommend getting in touch with your department to find out if you do have one, and bear in mind that reading week isn’t exactly a holiday, it’s a chance to get essays, coursework and reading done!
You’ll be assigned a personal tutor during your first week at uni, if not before so keep an eye on your emails!
You’ll be told where to go in your enrolment confirmation email, but if you don’t have this, you can search for the details for your course here.
The Enrolment Support Team can be contacted by email or telephone. The team are available Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm.
When you contact the Enrolment Support Team via email, please include your Student ID number. When calling please have your Student ID number to hand, as this will enable us to assist you with any queries you may have.
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