- Hello, everybody, my name's Ben Jordan.

I'm the Senior Strategy and
Insights Manager here at UCAS.

And this part of the
International Teachers'

and Advisers' Conference
was live from my garden.

In this session, I'm going to tell you

how the UK is responding to COVID-19,

and what that means for the
rest of the admissions cycle.

And I'm going to be joined
by my colleague Peter Derek,

the Head of Service Delivery.

Hello, everybody.

It's Ben Jordan here,

the Senior Strategy and
Insights Manager at UCAS.

This presentation is going
to look at what is happening

in the UK in relation to COVID-19,

but also look forward to
Confirmation & Clearing

this year, and also the 2021 entry cycle.

We thought it be useful to
give you an understanding

what is happening in the UK,

recognising that many of
you will be experiencing

similar circumstances
in your home nations.

Please be assured that
whilst the focus here

is on UK activities,
UCAS is fully committed

to making sure that we support students

and advisers around the world.

So what is happening in the UK?

So the first thing to note is that

there'll be no summer
examinations this year

for major qualifications such as A levels,

Scottish Highers, and BTECs.

Instead, we're going to have
a process whereby students

are given a calculated
grade issued by their school

based on their achievement
and evidence to date.

So performance in class, but
also professional judgement .

One of the key things to note
here is that we're expecting

these grade distributions to
be similar to previous years.

The regulators of
qualifications, such as Ofqual,

have really made that clear.

We also expect universities
to treat these grades

the same as they would
treat any other grade

in any other year.

So B B B this year means
the same as B B B last year.

And we would expect similar
approaches to students

from across the globe.

In the UK, there's also
been a lot of conversation

about when results will
actually be issued to students.

And there was a school of thought suggest

that this could be earlier

given that there are no examinations.

However, there's a range of
additional and new processes

that have to be developed,
and therefore SQA results day

will remain the 4th of August,

and A level results day will
remain the 13th of August.

A unique feature that's
appeared in England

is something called the Autumn Series.

So those students in England
that receive a calculated grade

that they are happy with are
able to sit an examination

in the Autumn, probably
October, November time,

and they'll be able to get
their results back by Christmas.

Now, for these students the
options presented to them,

they could enter a course
that starts in January,

or they may wish to enter

higher education the following year.

We're expecting that to be
quite a high-attaining group,

and we're also expecting it
to be quite a small group.

Also during this period, we've
seen a range of stability

measures introduced to support
the sector and students.

Michelle Donelan, the
universities minister in England

issued a moratorium on
unconditional offers

asking providers not to make them.

Similar announcements
followed across the UK,

and UCAS adjusted our
timelines to accommodate.

The moratorium was
lifted on the 4th of May,

and a series of stability
measures were announced.

These included changes to the way

the tuition fee payments
are made to universities,

the introduction of a 5% growth
cap for UK and EU students,

a hardships fund to support students,

and measures to encourage
international students

to come to the UK.

Alongside these announcements
was a consultation

on a new regulatory condition
from the Office for Students

to promote stability across the sector,

and also announcements
regarding UCAS Clearing Plus.

My colleague Peter will
talk about that later.

We've also been doing a lot
of surveys with students

to really understand how
they feel at this time,

recognising that there is bound

to be some uncertainty for them.

Encouragingly, 9 out of

they will still get a place at university,

and 10% think their chance have increased,

while 49% think they've stayed the same.

However, we are really
engaging with the 28% or so

that feel that their
chance has reduced and 13%

who feel they won't get a place this year.

So it's really important that
we promote confident messages

to students and let them
know that higher education

will continue in some form.

We've also been doing work to understand

what information students need in order

to help them make decisions at this time.

And over half of those
students have said that

they would like clarity on the
start of the academic year.

This could be in the form

of when would the academic year start,

but also what the teaching medium will be.

Finally from me, we continue to make sure

the higher education
sector is kept up to date

in what is happening around

the international student recruitment.

This includes updates on
English language testing,

but also the individual
assessment arrangements

within specific nations.

For example, recently we've
communicated quite a lot

of information about the circumstances

around the Irish Leaving
Certificate this year.

That's all from me now.

Do feel free to drop me any
questions should you need,

and we'll pick that up as part of the Q&A.

But I'd like to hand over now
to my colleague Peter Derek.

- Thank you for that, Ben.

Welcome to today's International Teachers'

and Advisers' Conference.

I'm Peter Derek, Head of
Service Delivery here at UCAS.

And I'm going to be giving
you a brief update on the 2020

and 2021 cycles, including
Confirmation & Clearing.

I'd like to spend a bit of time talking

about our Confirmation
& Clearing 2020 plans.

You'll see from this slide that all

of the principle milestones
around main scheme closing

and clearing opening
as well as SQA and JCQ

results days are as expected.

We of course are keeping
all the dates and deadlines

under constant review, and any
changes will be communicated

to you through the normal channels.

Clearing Plus is an exciting
and new service from UCAS.

Available to all unplaced applicants

from July until the end of August,

Clearing Plus matches
students with courses

based on a whole range of criteria.

Embedded in Track, it allows the applicant

to express, in real time,
interest in a provider's course.

Further details and guidance
on how this service works

are going to be released to
you all in the coming weeks.

Building on the success
of the 'Decline my place'

functionality from 2019,
we're enhancing it this year

by capturing the reason the
applicant will no longer

want to attend the institution.

Our advice and guidance to applicants

always remains the same,
that if they're unhappy

or concerned about taking up their place

they should absolutely
contact the provider

in the first instance to
discuss this with them.

Let us turn our attention
now to the 2021 cycle.

You'll see on this slide
all of the key dates

for the UCAS Undergraduate service.

I'm really pleased to
say that we did launch

both Search and Apply
for 2021 entry over May.

On the next slide you'll
see all of the key dates

for our UCAS Conservatoires scheme.

We will of course keep all
of the dates and deadlines

under constant review as the situation

both develops here in
the UK but also globally.

If we do need to make a change,
we will absolutely make sure

that you're kept fully up to date

through all of our usual channels

both on ucas.com and our regular mailings.

Thank you very much for your time today

watching this presentation,
and I look forward

to taking your questions
in our live session.