Is a university place a snap or swipe away?

Ahead of 17 August, universities are already promoting opportunities to secure a last-minute place with them via Ucas Clearing – the official system for students who don’t get the grades they need – to find a Plan B quickly.

This year, Staffordshire University will be making Clearing offers to students via photo-sharing app Snapchat – a step beyond ads on the side of buses and in newspapers which universities have traditionally used.

Snapchat Clearing

Offers through Snapchat will be made based on communicated grades, just as they would if a student phoned a university as per the usual Clearing process. All offers via these channels will be followed up by a confirmation email or number to call.

From #ALevelResults Day, you can direct message us your results on Snapchat, Facebook or Twitter to find out if you could study @StaffsUni. pic.twitter.com/WUGhJn2d9O

— Staffordshire Uni (@StaffsUni) August 3, 2017

Students can reach out to the university across their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well.

Staffordshire University’s Director of Marketing and PR, Georgina Kelly said the decision came from a desire to ‘engage students on the channels they’re using’ and that this would make Staffordshire ‘more accessible’ to them on results day.

This isn’t the first instance of a university causing a stir with their outreach attempts to students in Clearing. Last year, the University of Salford offered Tinder users a different sort of rebound, posting a profile for their university; interested students could swipe ‘Yes’ to start chatting and ‘get to know’ the university.

Other major organisations and brands are using popular social media among young people to not just market their products and services, but also assist in their own form of ‘recruitment’. McDonald’s recently opened up their staff recruitment to Snapchat users with a short video promo within their feed, from which they can visit the company’s careers page and apply for roles, all within the app.

Snap-happy

Is there a limit to what we should look to social media and apps for? Should some things remain offline? Are we leaning on their convenience too much? Is something lost by not actually speaking to another individual?

In the case of Clearing phonecalls, these can vary between a quick confirmation of grades, to a mini-interview where a student must explain briefly why they’re interested in that course and why they would make a strong candidate. How this would work for a student reaching out to a university via Snapchat or Twitter isn’t so clear at this point.

We asked our Twitter followers how they felt about Staffordshire’s idea:

.@StaffsUni will be making #Clearing offers to students via #Snapchat. Would you use Snapchat in this way, if it was an option?

— Which? University (@WhichuniUK) August 4, 2017

But what do you think? Tell us in the comments whether you consider this step innovative, or if universities should stick to the traditional ‘dog and bone’ when recruiting prospective students. How do you feel about the general shift towards a society where there’s an app for everything?

Look out for our Snapchat Story on Results Day, including a Q&A with our team. Send us your results day and Clearing questions on Twitter (@whichuniuk), Facebook (whichuniversity) or Snapchat (search for username ‘which university’ on your app).