Thames Valley Clearing Guru Gets Tweeting

University is helping students find courses

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A record number of A-level entries have received top grades this year, putting more pressure on finding a university place.

60,000 more have applied for college this year - a 10% rise on 2008.

Thames Valley University (TVU) has launched a new Twitter profile which aims to help anyone who may have fallen short of their expected grades.

Their ‘Clearing Guru’ will be on hand on Twitter throughout the summer, tweeting advice and tips for those needing to navigate Clearing - the national system that helps people find vacancies on higher education courses. The Clearing Guru will be able to answer questions too and will also be posting regular updates on places still available on TVU courses.

Lynn Grimes, Director of Marketing and Recruitment at TVU, said:

‘This time of year can be really stressful for students as they wait to find out their grades and make big decisions about their futures, so it’s good to know that support is out there. Through our Twitter profile, students and other tweeters will be able to access our top Clearing tips, links to other helpful sources of advice, and information on TVU courses. Twitter has around 55 million monthly visits, so we were keen to explore how we could use it to interact with people during Clearing.’

TVU’s Clearing telephone hotline will also be open from 8am to 8pm everyday from Thursday 20 August (A-level results day) to Saturday 29 August, and from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, for the rest of the Clearing period. Callers to the hotline on 0800 036 8888 will be able to enquire about specific courses and find out if TVU has a place available for them.

Lynn Grimes said:

 ‘Our advice is not to panic if you haven’t got the exam results you were expecting; it doesn’t always mean you’ve missed out on your university place. And even if you don’t get into your first choice university, there will be other options open to you. You need to get on the phone straightaway and start calling the universities you’re interested in. At TVU, the advisers on our Clearing hotline can help you find a positive outcome – even if we don’t have space left on the particular course you want to do, we might be able to suggest other courses at TVU or other universities you could try.’

Students can check out the courses on offer at TVU in advance of Clearing – either online at www.tvu.ac.uk or through their iPhone/iPod touch if they have one.

TVU recently became the first university in England to have its own prospectus app, which is available to download for free from iTunes and features details of the University’s entire portfolio of courses.

To find TVU on Twitter, search for 'TVUclearingguru'.

 

 

 

August 20, 2009

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