2024 Clearing Success for Staff and New Students

Every year, the University sets up a call centre for Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and A Level results days, to support applicants who are receiving their results, and to manage any Clearing enquiries. The call centre provides information and advice to students, and by picking up calls which would otherwise go directly to admissions teams, it improves response times for students while allowing admissions staff to focus on essential confirmation processing. Improving the experience for both staff and prospective students is the key behind this operation.

Both the SQA and A Level Results Days operations overall ran smoothly and successfully. Call volumes were significantly higher for A Levels, as expected, due to the much higher number of applicants receiving their results that day. Recorded messages advising that the only Clearing places for UK students were in Nursing reduced the number of UK callers looking for a place on a different course continuing the call. On A Level Results Day, 1375 callers ended their call after hearing the recorded message.

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Direct lines to College admissions teams were redirected to the call centre on results days. Trained call centre staff were able to deal with the vast majority of calls using scripts and key messages. In many cases, callers were directed to provide information via web forms where their enquiries were not urgent.

Only a small number of callers who required urgent specialist help were transferred to the College helplines on both SQA and A Level results days.

The Helpline queue on A level results day initially exceeded the 200 call limit, but quickly dropped below this after the initial morning influx.

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Helping Students

Students on the end of the line experienced consistent messaging, shorter waiting times, and less redirection. Transferring urgent enquiries to the College Admission Teams for specialist advice where necessary helped in providing the best all-round support for often distressed callers who had not met their offer conditions. In addition, Clearing callers from the UK who were calling the University of Edinburgh on spec and who were not interested in Nursing were quickly able to end the call and move on to another University, increasing their chances of finding a suitable Clearing vacancy. Call handlers ensured that sensitivity to callers’ circumstances, and sympathetic but practical support, was at the front of their minds.

Behind the Scenes

Using optimised technology and feedback from 2023’s success, call centre staff were able to handle Clearing and admission queries in a timely and efficient manner, easing the pressure on College admissions teams. Support was in place for call centre staff through a team of supervisors, as some of the calls they had to deal with were distressing or of a difficult nature. As many of the call centre staff had worked on the results day helpline previously, they were helped by familiarity with the phone application which was exactly the same as last year. Murchison House had been a popular location for last year’s call centre, so call handlers were happy to use the same facilities again.

A key difference from SQA results day last year was that there was no separate line for Clearing, with all calls routed via the Helpline. However, call handlers were well trained and prepared for all types of calls so that they were able to provide students with the best experience possible. As there were no places available in Clearing on SQA or A level results days except for Nursing, this meant that Clearing messaging was simple and consistent.

This was a major success for new students and admissions teams. Feedback from this year will be considered ahead of the 2025 results period, to further improve student and staff experience.