How UCAS Results Day Works

Student celebrating a confirmed university place on Results Day, checking the outcome on their phone with the university campus ahead.

On results day, check your results and UCAS together. If your firm university hasn't confirmed your place, the admissions team may still accept you even if you missed the offer conditions. Wait for the firm decision before assuming the insurance has become your place or that you need Clearing.

Before results day

A level results day for 2027 is Thursday 12 August. Other qualifications release results on different dates, so check when yours are due and how you will receive them. Make sure you can sign in to UCAS and access the email account your universities use, and read the full conditions on the firm and insurance choices you made earlier. An AAB offer can include a required grade in a particular subject or another condition beyond the headline grades.

Need help with the UCAS application process?

This page covers one part of applying through UCAS. For the full route through choosing courses, checking deadlines, completing your application and managing what happens next, use the main UCAS process guide.

Go to the UCAS process guide →

When your results arrive

If your firm place is confirmed in UCAS, you already have the place you accepted earlier and don't need to accept it again. The insurance choice falls away, so check that the course, campus and start date are the ones you expect, then follow the university's instructions for enrolment and accommodation. If the firm decision is still pending, don't assume missed grades mean the place has gone. If your firm offer was AAB and you received ABB, the firm university can still accept you; meeting the insurance conditions doesn't make the insurance your place while the firm decision remains open. UCAS says an update can take up to 24 hours to appear, so read any message from the university and contact its admissions team if the position remains unclear.

If the firm university doesn't confirm your place and the insurance university does, the insurance becomes the place you hold. You don't choose again between the two universities or accept the insurance place again in UCAS. If you want to look elsewhere, keep the confirmed insurance place while you find out whether another university would take you. Giving it up first can leave you with no place at all.

A university can also make a changed-course offer. The change can be to the course, start date or point of entry, and UCAS gives you five days to reply. Before you reply, read the new offer and check whether your other university has already confirmed a place. If no other place is confirmed, declining the changed-course offer leaves you without a university place at that point.

Preparing your UCAS application?

Follow the key stages from choosing your courses and checking requirements to submitting your application and responding to offers.

Explore UCAS Process Advice →

If neither choice gives you a place

If both university decisions are complete and neither university has confirmed you, you can use Clearing. If either university is still deciding, don't enter Clearing yet; the university can still confirm a near miss. How UCAS Clearing Works explains how to find vacancies, speak to universities and add a Clearing choice after a university agrees to take you.

If your results are better than expected

Adjustment no longer exists, so better results don't open a separate UCAS route for changing university. You can research Clearing vacancies and speak to universities while keeping a confirmed place, but you have to give that place up before you can accept another one through Clearing. Using ‘Decline my place’ cancels the confirmed place and puts you into Clearing. UCAS also says arrangements tied to the place, including accommodation or scholarships, will be cancelled. Use the option only when you are prepared to lose the place you already have.

Turn your reasons for choosing the course into evidence for your application

Our free guides can help you make the course decision. The Complete Personal Statement Writing Pack takes the next step, helping you develop those reasons, identify the experiences that support them and turn your evidence into the three UCAS answers.

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How to complete your UCAS application →

Work through the application itself, from entering your details and choices to checking everything before submission.

How to Choose Your Firm and Insurance Choices

Your firm choice is the course you most want to take. If that offer is conditional, UCAS also lets you keep one other offer as insurance. Only use that option for a course you'd genuinely be willing to attend.

How UCAS Extra Works

UCAS Extra lets you add another course once all five of your original choices are finished and you aren't holding an offer. You apply to one course at a time using the application you've already submitted, so check the course and its requirements before you add it.

What to Do If You Get No University Offers

If your original UCAS choices leave you with no offer you want to accept, check whether every decision is complete before changing anything. Then work out whether you still have an unused choice, qualify for Extra, need to wait for Clearing, or should make a fresh application next year.

Main personal statement guide →

Once you reach the personal statement stage, use the guide to decide what to include, develop your evidence and edit your writing.