Clearing 2024 - changing your mind transcript

00:00

So you’re thinking about uni, but you’re keeping your options open?

A red ball rolls onscreen. A thought bubble pops up, showing the ball thinking about various different types of university, including Solent University's red pod.

00:04

If you haven’t yet picked your uni, your course, or both – or if you have, but you’re thinking you might change your mind – then welcome to Clearing!

A tree grows up, and sprouts all different kinds of fruit. An apple falls, and the red ball takes a bite before throwing it over their shoulder. The ball then jumps to try and reach a different piece of fruit.

00:11

Whatever brings you here, you’re not alone. More and more people find their uni places through Clearing each year, so it’s perfectly normal.

A teal ball travelling through space, leaving a long glowing trail behind. It is joined by dozens of others, in all different colours. A series of different lenses click into place, showing the image in different historic styles - old grainy black and white photography, sepia photography, heavily pixellated graphics, and back to modern style.

00:19

Heading into the summer, most universities still have places to fill – courses which aren’t yet full of excited soon-to-be-students.

A teal ball, leaving a glowing trail behind, travels across the screen left to right. The background changes to a summery yellow. The ball hits the rim of a large pot, bounces around twice, and falls inside with some other balls. Zooming out, lots of other pots are revealed, containing various balls, with more balls falling - often bouncing off and getting caught by another pot.

00:25

And there are loads of people still looking...

Several balls of different colours move around the screen as if looking for something, using radar-style sweeping scanners that ping back and forth.

00:29

Some might not have got the grades they hoped for, and they’re working out their backup plan.

A red ball falling, missing things which could have caught it - a pot, a net, another pot. Finally it opens a parachute and drifts safely down.

00:33

Others, like you, might have changed their minds or only just started looking.

A red ball containing a stylised brain with a book inside; this is replaced with a digital 'brain' network, made of small connected coloured circles, flashing different colours. As the circles turn red, they flash in time and a lightbulb pings on over the ball's head. Then the ball and lightbulb fall off-screen.

00:39

All Clearing is, is a process to match the two up; to match students, with courses.

A red ball falls into shot. It falls for a few seconds, then is caught safely in a net

00:43

How does it work? It’s not that different from applying to uni in the first place.

A horizontal conveyor belt turns on-screen. A red ball bounces onto the conveyor from the left, and is carried along, before dropping off the far right end of the conveyor.

00:47

Step 1) Register and research If you haven’t already, register with UCAS and research unis and courses;

The red ball drops into a classroom setting, with two other balls sat at desks and a larger ball standing at the front. The red ball takes a seat. Speech bubbles appear from each of the three seated balls: 'here miss', 'here miss', 'here miss'. A smaller speech bubble appears by the third ball: 'you're not the boss of me'

00:53

find some you like the look of.

Icons of several types of building sit in two lines onscreen - a castle, two office-type buildings, a circus tent, an old-fashioned school, and Solent University's distinctive 'pod' lecture theatre. The red ball appears from left of screen and bounces off the various buildings along the way, before ending up in Solent's pod.

00:57

Step 2) Prepare Get everything you need – your qualifications, your UCAS Track number, your personal statement, and any questions you might want to ask.

The red ball sits in the centre of the screen. A desk lamp sits in the top right. The ball begins to vibrate, and magnetically attracts various items it needs - pen, paper, envelope, computer, briefcase, notebook. Then the lamp flies in and crashes into the ball.

01:05

Step 3) Contact unis Get in touch with unis to check they’ve got a place for you –

A small red ball loops round and around, leaving a trail like an old-fashioned landline phone cord. At the end of the cord, a red phone fades in. Then the small red ball emerges from the handset and disappears offscreen.

01:10

usually there’s a Clearing hotline, but email, Whatsapp, live chat and other social media can also work.

The red phone shrinks and rotates down onto a blue circle, where it spins. Another small red ball appears, trailing a red line, and loops around the top of the blue circle, leaving icons for phone, email, whatsapp, live chat and twitter behind it. Then other social media icons rapidly start to appear all over the screen.

01:17

Step 3 and a half) Consider a different route

The red ball appears, following a red dotted line and leaving a glowing red trail behind. The dotted line disappears, and the ball stops - but two alternative routes appear, curving above and below the old route. The red ball pauses, then hops onto the lower route and follows it off-screen

01:20

If your qualifications aren’t a good match for the courses you’re interested in and you’re struggling to find a place,

The red ball in centre-screen reviews and rejects a range of different careers/courses before finding a match with a music course. Text appears: 'match detected. Foundation required'

01:25

...consider looking at a foundation year - essentially an extra year at university before starting your degree, offering a broad introduction to the subject and the industry, and helping you build the essential skills you’ll need before starting your degree.

Multiple tetris-style blocks fall down, making shapes that the red ball uses to climb up, jumping from block to block until it reaches a gap. It waits there impatiently for the right block to fall and fill the gap, then hops across. A rainbow appears, and takes the red ball off-screen as more blocks start to fall.

01:39

Step 4) Confirm your offer on UCAS You can accept as many verbal offers from unis as you like, but you’ll then need to pick one.

The red ball sits centre-screen. Four other balls appear, one in each corner, and start talking to the red ball, offering uni places.

01:45

Once you’ve made your choice, add it in your UCAS Hub – that counts as accepting the offer.

The red ball falls onto a roulette wheel, bounces around before settling on a red spot. A robot arm reaches out and grabs the red ball, before launching it into space.

01:51

And that’s it! Once your university confirms with UCAS, you’ve made it through Clearing; you’re going to uni! Take a breath – you’ve earned it.

The red ball morphs into a rocket, and fires its boosters, launching off the screen. The background changes from summer yellow to chilled-out blue.

02:00

What comes next? If you haven’t already visited your uni, see if there’s an open day you can pop along to – it’s always great to see campus for yourself, and get a feel for the place you’ll be studying. Otherwise, just relax and enjoy the summer. Best of luck!

The red ball comes on screen. Train tracks appear, and a bullet train pulls up. The red ball gets on board, and the train speeds off. University buildings appear, including Solent's pod, and the train whooshes past, dropping off the red ball at the uni. Banners appear saying 'welcome' and 'we love you!' The background then changes to summer yellow, and the red ball puts on sunglasses.

02:14

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Solent university's branded outro. A red wave appears, filling the screen, and then Solent University's logo appears and the URL www.solent.ac.uk/clearing