A-level results day: the phone call that decides a student's future

At some point this morning, somewhere, a student read their A-level results, sat with them for a moment, and picked up the phone. On the other end was a colleague of yours. 

Confirmation and Clearing is that phone call, repeated several thousand times over results day and the days around it. Around 370 colleagues are taking calls across the operation this year, 175 of them on the central lines in the Nancy Rothwell Building, working alongside teams in our faculties and schools who make the decisions that turn a phone call into a place. Many are doing this on top of their usual jobs. Most have given up a day, sometimes two, to be on the phones, and no two days on the lines are the same. 

By 12.30pm today, the central lines had answered around 6,000 calls across Clearing, Confirmation, Widening Access and the Teachers and Advisors line. On the Clearing line specifically, the average queue time through the morning has been five minutes, with a longest wait of 12 minutes.

Every call is somebody's future 

Some of the people ringing today have done better than they hoped. Some have missed a grade by a single mark. Some are parents calling on behalf of a son or daughter who can't face doing it themselves. Some calls last two minutes. Others take much longer, because the person on the line needs a moment before they can talk about options at all. Either way, the call is deciding where they spend the next three years, or four, or longer if they stay with us beyond their first degree. 

What our call handlers can offer in those few minutes is time and accuracy, and a voice that sounds glad to hear from them. For a lot of these students, this is the first time Manchester has been a person rather than a prospectus. 

That applies just as much to the students we can't make an offer to. How someone is told no, and what they're pointed towards instead, still comes down to the person doing the telling. 

A university-wide effort 

Behind the phones, colleagues across Admissions, faculties, schools and ITS have spent months getting ready for a day that only works if everything holds at once. The systems need to stay up under a huge amount of load. Decisions need to be made fast, and made correctly. And whatever's decided needs to reach the person on the headset before the caller does. 

Professor Jenn Hallam, Vice-President for Teaching, Learning and Students, is among those taking calls today. 

"I've loved being on the phones this morning speaking to students. There's nothing quite like telling someone they've secured a place at Manchester and hearing just how much that moment means to them. A few of the conversations I've had today have genuinely made my day. 

"Days like this are a real reminder of what an incredible community we have at Manchester. Our Admissions teams do an amazing job supporting applicants throughout the year, and on results day they're joined by colleagues from right across the University who volunteer their time to help. It's a fantastic team effort, and I'm so grateful for the energy, care and commitment everyone brings to making such an important day special for our students."

Demand is already showing 

A number of courses have already closed since vacancies went live last night, across subject areas including Nursing, Engineering, Computer Science, Fashion, Sociology, Architecture, Earth and Environmental Science, Criminology and Management, a sign of how many strong applicants are treating Manchester as their first choice rather than their fallback.

Where this ends up 

In July, many of us watched students cross the stage at graduation and heard what their time here had meant to them. Most of them started the way today's callers are starting: with a phone call, on a results day in August, to someone they'll probably never meet again. 

Thank you to everyone giving their time this week.  

And to the students joining us: welcome to Manchester.