With growth-first logic and advantaged families, is the clearing system fair?
Clearing acceptances reached a record high last academic year, and it doesn’t look as though the trend is likely to abate anytime soon. However, there’s been a growing of air contention around the process. The growth-first logic has left even the prestigious Russell Group of institutions struggling to fill places in the face of large capital expenditure projects and a demographic decline in the number of 18-year-olds. How fair the process actually is has also been called into question with the accusation that more advantaged young people and families are able to more effectively ‘play the system’ during clearing. Are these issues topics for discussion at your university over the clearing period?
