So it’s officially nearing the end of August… time really
does fly by when you’re on holiday (well… when you’re not in term time anyway… as
technically I’m not on holiday… I’m at work). It feels so good to be reunited
with everyone in the Enquiry Unit at the university (I hope the feeling is
mutual!) and of course to be working alongside the newbies that have joined us for
the Clearing period! The office has been busy busy busy from the very first day
of Clearing and the phones just haven’t stopped ringing since!
Clearing can be a very stressful time of year for students
(especially for those who didn't quite expect to end up in Clearing and so
didn't prepare themselves for it, like me). As daunting as Clearing may sound,
it is a rather straight forward, pain-free experience (well…our university aims
for this anyway). I've had a wide variety of calls over these past few weeks: from
making Clearing applications, checking the status of applications, solving accommodation
and finance queries and more recently, queries regarding online registration.
Many people think that Clearing only runs for a short period of time, straight
after the exam results are published, but in fact it is on-going until late
September! So long as the course is available and the entry requirements to get
onto the course are met, a place is pretty much guaranteed! Another common
misconception people have is that they often think Clearing is only for
students who haven’t met the grades required to be accepted onto their firm or
insurance university choice. From all
the calls I have taken during the last two Clearing cycles, I can definitely
say that yes…we do get a lot of calls from students in this situation but we
also get calls from late applicants who didn't think of going to university
until now, students who have excelled in their exams so are eligible for
adjustment and students who want to transfer from one university to another.
One thing I've definitely learnt from working at the Enquiry Unit is that you
need to be able to think fast on your feet… every person ringing the office has
a different query…it is our duty to understand their problem and solve it as
best as we can… this can be really difficult when the office is exceptionally
busy (like on results day)…
But I’m sure you’ll all be relieved to know…it is not all
‘blood, sweat and tears’ at the office…last Friday was our ‘Theme your Team’
challenge! This year’s theme was ‘A Night at the Movies’… so what other movie
were my team ‘Team April’ going to do but GREASE!!! We decorated our bay with
lights, records and pictures of the 50’s…and of course there was plenty of 50’s
style food such as apple pie, popcorn, cola etc. And as for our team
performance… there was a lot of dancing, singing , acting and plenty more food!
There was some very tight competition from the other teams I must admit, but
I’m still hopeful Team April have got this one in the bag! Fingers crossed and
I’ll keep you posted on which team came out top real soon!
