Clearing 2020 - how university marketing teams responded

Empty lecture halls were a feature of 2020

This article is part of our education marketing content series, we interviewed marketing and communications leaders from across higher and further education. We asked what they’ve learnt in 2020, and what they’re planning for the future. The series is packed with insights, top-tips, and their reflections on an unprecedented time.

Clearing 2020, was ‘unprecedented’ - like most other things this year - but as A-level students’ grades were subject to bias algorithms and 11th hour ‘triple lock’-ing, it came with an extra level of chaos. 

As planned gap years were stymied, and downgraded qualifications cost students places, clearing applications were expected to increase by 22% on the previous year. 

Conversations about clearing on Twitter and various news outlets were documented by leading digital intelligence company, Brandwatch.  They observed 71,000 conversations about clearing between July and October 2020. 

Twitter saw a surge in clearing related conversations during the A-levels results week when they increased by 562% compared to the previous seven day period. 

With new ways of working and an increase in application volume, university teams were hit with their biggest challenge yet. 

We spoke to leading HE professionals about their experiences and important takeaways from clearing 2020. 

Entirely remote clearing is possible

Some university admissions teams used a virtual and on-site hybrid approach to clearing, others managed clearing entirely remotely. 

The University of Glasgow opted for a completely remote clearing. Rachel Sandison, vice principal, external relations at the University of Glasgow explained how they approached the challenge, “we were set up the same with a clearing hotline. It was pinged across different teams and it was all done through a computer. We optimised the process that we always follow, we drafted in a range of colleagues from across the directorate and from the university community.”

As one of their most successful clearings ever, it proved that clearing can be done entirely off-site and online. 

Plan, plan, plan and contingency plan

External factors continued to chop and change (*ahem* Ofqual) as universities planned the final details of their clearing operations. 

The RACI planning model was one of the factors key to the success of the Queen Mary University London’s clearing process. The operation was run entirely remotely, so a clear plan, as Priti Patel,  assistant director marketing and communications: UKSR and Widening Participation said, “is especially important when you're working virtually. It’s very important to clarify what your role is and how you get involved.” 

Angelina Bingley, director of admissions, recruitment and marketing shared the University of East Anglia’s approach to their on-site-remote hybrid approach to clearing. 

Angelina explained, “We planned for months and had a really robust plan for clearing. People could work remotely and we also had about 100 people on-site (all socially distanced) and spread over four or five rooms.”

It was planned with military precision and factored in fail-safes, Angelina explained, “we had contingencies in place. If the phones went down people could get onto live chat.”

Dress rehearsals pay off 

Potential technical snags were top-of-mind, and teams prepared for them in various ways. University of Sunderland’s director of home student recruitment, Francesca Carey’s team minimised the possibility for human error and technical bugs by holding dress rehearsals.

Francesca said, “I don't think it would have worked quite as well if we hadn't done dress rehearsal activities in the lead up to it [clearing]. We did a whole technical run with all of the call handlers involved. They had to transfer calls on Skype for Business and go through the motions of handling the calls in a real scenario. That worked really well.”

This proved particularly important for universities that used academics as part of the clearing process for the first time. Some institutions found themselves in “dire straits.” 

Master and embrace your technology

Clearing teams used a variety of new tools to communicate with applicants and colleagues. 

To field incoming enquiries, and manage the volume of applicants in the most efficient way, the University of Glasgow team launched their first chatbot, Rachel explained, “We spent a lot of time programming it so people could get immediate responses to some of the most frequently asked questions.” 

The team also used Facebook Live and webinars to share information about the University’s clearing process. 

Clear, timely and organised internal communications were a priority for everyone. 

And Microsoft Teams was a popular solution. Institutions including UEA, used Teams as the hub of their internal comms, as Angelina explained, “Teams chat worked amazingly well. We had a lot of different channels and people kept conversations in the right channels and the channels were managed.” 

WhatsApp enabled efficient internal comms at the University of Swansea, as Mark Garrett explained, “we had a number of WhatsApp groups and they were fundamental to communication in clearing and rapid decision making. ”

Clearing pre-COVID is missed

Although university teams adapted incredibly well to the circumstances and demands of clearing 2020, people miss the social aspects and atmosphere of clearing as it has been pre-COVID. 

Francesca captured the collective sentiment felt by many university teams when she said: “One of the disappointing things about clearing this year was that there wasn't the same sense of ‘we're all in it together’ camaraderie. 

Usually, you're all in one room, you're looking at the targets and saying ‘we're almost there’. And ordering Domino’s and sharing sweets and such. That was missed, and I think if we could return to that that would be excellent, but I can't see it happening in the near future.”

The future of clearing 

It wasn’t the clearing we anticipated for 2020 as we sat together in offices last year, but teams adapted and in most cases, excelled. This ‘unprecedented’ clearing was a success for the majority of HE institutions.

Although the camaraderie of pre-pandemic clearing is missed, a return to the pre-COVID clearing model seems unlikely. The potential of a fully remote clearing has been proved. So, in the future, clearing looks set to be either fully remote or a hybrid approach of in-person and remote operations. One thing is certain, there will never be a clearing quite like 2020 again.