Thursday, December 26, 2019

Cyber Libertarianism A Declaration Of Independence

Daily millions of people interact on the internet, information is being shared across the boarders within seconds. Cyberspace has made it easier to access things for the everyday man but with kind of power at our fingertips shouldn’t it have some kind of control? Regulations that govern what can and cannot be done or used online. One would think that the same rules that apply in the real world should apply in cyberspace right? Well John Perry Barlow think differently, in February of 1996 he published what is now called ‘a declaration of independence on behalf of cyberspace’, where he said that cyberspace is sovereign place free from real world laws and therefore the government had no business making laws on behalf of cyberspace. This statement had an effect on computer programmers and challenged law-marker around the world, people started the question if there was any truth to what John was saying. This statement then bought about the school of thought called cyb er-libertarianism, whereby they believe that ‘individuals acting in whatever capacity they choose should be at liberty to pursue their own tastes and interests online.’ Except for in special cases like for example sex offences against children or former sexual partners like revenge porn etc. However another school of thought Cyber paternalism is of a different opinion, they believed that cyberspace wasn’t immune from rule-world regulations. Rather some of real world regulations can help cyberspace by regulating

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Exploring a Career as a Talent Agent Essay - 2303 Words

Generally, most of us spend a significant amount of time of our lives in the workplace, and therefore it is important to fully understand the roles and responsibilities of possible dream jobs before choosing and initiating our careers. Then, whereas I plan to pursue my career goals as a Music Agent, it is mandatory to comprehend what constitutes the work of being an agent and what it will be expected from me in this profession. Spite of professions in the music industry arena be considered very exciting, it can also be extremely competitive. Therefore, I aim to define this profession’s duties, identifying essential abilities to work in this field and deal with the present competitiveness, whilst analysing which relevant skills could†¦show more content†¦Moreover, another of my duties will be to arrange auditions and negotiate contracts on the behalf of the artist or group. Therefore, great communication skills are clearly necessary, also in order to cultivate strong r elationships with record labels and venue managers; coordinate important venue bookings and set up record deals. Notwithstanding, is quite common musicians in early career stages to manage their career themselves and book their own shows. However, there is a significant importance of having an agent from the start, as suggested by Teri Saccone: â€Å"Some industry experts advise that you should find an agent prior to getting a record deal as booking artists for venues requires an unique skill and good contacts† (Saccone, T., 2003:66). For this reason, agents usually hold the key to the good shows and are able to arrange gigs for their artists to play with bigger audiences than if they were doing all the work themselves. 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Monday, December 9, 2019

Entrepreneurship And Innovativeness In The Business Organizations

Question: Discuss about the Analyzing the Importance of Innovation. Answer: Introduction The main aim of the paper is to increase the understanding of innovation and entrepreneurship in the food sector with proper help of theoretical along with practical approaches of the sustainability along with degree of maturity and complexity. As systematic literature review, the particular paper also aims in increasing knowledge in understanding the previous research wherein relationship between the sustainability as well as models of business in the food sector. This will help in taking a step towards the conceptual framework of the innovation of the model with proper sustainability (Zhou 2015). Innovation is defined as a proper tool of the process of entrepreneurship through which it is the duty of the entrepreneurs to exploit different kind of changes as prospect in different kinds of business or service. A proper review of the literature helps in revealing that there are studies that deal with structure, strategy as well as process of either entrepreneurship or innovation. However, there are few who deals with conceptual relationship between two of them. The particular study adopts an approach that is qualitative in nature that helps in exploring innovation presence in the process and actions of entrepreneurship and innovation as well. The literature review will be done on a dairy company named Bulla Dairy Foods wherein in depth interviews were conducted with the senior managers of the respective organization as well. In this particular study, it can be analyzed that both entrepreneurship and innovation has huge role in the generation of innovative strategies of the organizations as they are complementary in nature and they need the support of one another as to generate fruitful results in the future as well. Material and Methods The conceptual framework between the innovation as well as entrepreneurship has been properly discussed in the literature for few years. According to Soriano and Huarng (2013), innovation is the process through which the firms master and gets into proper practice of designing of the different products along with process of manufacturing that are new in nature for the firms. As Anderson, Poto?nik and Zhou (2014) have properly observed that innovation is a process that includes three elements such as infrastructure, capital along with entrepreneurial capacity that will help in making them work. Furthermore, the innovation has to address the needs of the market with proper help of entrepreneurship, as this will help in achieving success. According to Galindo and Mndez (2014), innovation is complex processes wherein the needs are not properly recognized along with the core competences become the rigidity. Innovation can face barrier that is related to the information network that is closed and insulated from the different new ideas. Wright (2014) considers that the entrepreneurship is the activity that requires proper innovative ideas as well as strategies that will require introduction of new product or process that will help in generating process of destruction. Furthermore, innovation is the process wherein it helps in initiating as well as implementing innovative strategies as well (West and Bogers 2014). Secondly, the entrepreneurs take the entire advantage of the profit(Read et al. 2016). Read et al. (2016) and West and Bogers(2014) are of same view that the entrepreneurs in the business tries to take advantage of the profit that has been generated, however, contrary to the viewpoint of DeMassis, Frattini and Lichtenthaler (2013).De Massis, Frattini and Lichtenthaler (2013) comments that the entrepreneurs try to learn from the mistakes that have been committed by them in the past and corrects it by providing equilibrium in the market. According to Carraher and Paridon (2015), the elements that are uncertain in nature have to be properly taken into account. Demil et al. (2015)helped in distinguishing the relationship between risk as well as uncertainty, wherein he believes that uncertainty is the factor that has to be considered important in the field of the entrepreneurs. It is the duty of the entrepreneurs to consider the uncertainty and adopt proper decisions as well. The profits that are generated are the rewards that are taken by entrepreneurs as they take uncertainties. According to Lisetchi and Brancu(2014), both productive as well as non-productive entrepreneurs has to be considered. From the viewpoint of Kerr (2013), the entrepreneurs are creative as well as ingenious in nature that searches for the most effective as well as appropriate means that will help them in increasing the wealth, prestige as well as power. The environment that is existing n nature is another important influence on the decision of the entrepreneurs (Autio et al. 2014). It is interesting in nature to take into account the perspective of (Kuratko 2016). Kuratko(2016) commented that innovation is the process that is in the heart of the activities of entrepreneurship and innovation is the main reason that helps the entrepreneurs to carry out the different activities. Lastly, innovation is the main reason wherein the strategic growth of the entrepreneurs along with the organization is considered(Chaston 2017). During the last few decades, the systematic reviews are widely adopted formats that will help in presenting the reviews that are focused on the existing literature. However, the literature review that is systematic in nature helps in generating strong emphasis on the assessment of the quality that includes high level of reliability as well as validity. In this particular literature review, the main aim of the reliability was to address different procedural steps of performing literature review that was presented by (Kuratko, Hornsby and Covin 2014). Furthermore, the research work that is ongoing in nature will be presented at different seminars as well as conferences that will help in enabling the researcher to comment on the work-in-progress(Galindo and Mndez 2014). Results and Discussion The literature review helps in focusing on the model of business that will help in development of knowledge of complexity as well as maturity in Bulla Dairy Foods. Perceptions of innovation and entrepreneurship helped in summarizing the responses that has been obtained from interviews. The analysis is based on the articles that help in revealing practical, empirical as well as theoretical approaches and contributions. The interview questions were asked to the managers of different departments in Bulla Dairy Foods Company and the different articles are presented in the Appendix. Firstly, the business model concept was studied in the last few decades as this has been discusses in the introduction section but the different concepts have fairly new kind of meaning in the respective company. The respective company needs to adopt strategies in order to introduce a new product or service along with different strategies in the business. The findings from the present study help in understanding the concept of entrepreneurship paradigm that is supported by Chetty et al. (2014), along with the concept of entrepreneurship and innovation that did not exist previously (Chesbrough, Vanhaverbeke and West 2014). Similarly, innovation is the next proposition that has been considered with the help of studies. Innovation is considered as the process that is permanent in nature in Bulla Dairy Foods Company, Melbourne. Innovation is the process that is not limited to the stage of creation; it is the process that will continue will be pursued as well. Furthermore, regardless of the industry and size, Bulla Dairy Food Company has to engage in process of incremental innovation. However, there is a contradiction in the view of Etzkowitz and Zhou (2017), he suggested that there is strong correlation between potentiality of innovation as well as creation of the companies that are new in nature. The small ventures help in producing innovations as well as bring proper innovation to the respective market quickly than the other companies as well. The continuous innovation pursuit has underpinned the growth of the respective company lean towards the entrepreneurial attitude of innovation. In the particular perspective, the entrepreneurship activities help in taking up different opportunities and create opportunities as well (Chatterji, Glaeser and Kerr 2014). According to the director of the respective company, the keys to success of the company are the uniqueness as well as creativity in providing their customers proper goods and services that are highly tailored in nature. Furthermore, in adopting those, the respective company needs to develop a strong as well as accurate culture of the process of innovation. Being creative as well as unique in nature are the basic criteria for recruitment and motivation of the staffs. Innovation is the responsibility of the individuals and it acts as a source of job satisfaction of the employees as well. In order to win the win contract that are bigger in nature along with the new customers, the organization is exploring new ways as well as different approaches of performing things doing such activities that the other organizations do not do. These are the different examples that help in understanding that innovation is a continuous process in different organizations. It is also seen that innovation as well as entrepreneurship are complementary to one another in order to generate proper performance in the business. Furthermore, the third proposition is regarding the issue of the innovation process that is ambiguous in nature. The organizational as well as national culture has huge influence in the entrepreneurship level along with the innovative strategies in the different organizations. The primary determinant of innovation as well as entrepreneurship is the culture and it has huge impact on the innovation as well as entrepreneurship development. There is different conduct through which culture of the organization has been analyzed in the literature. It can be defined as the deeply rooted values as well as the norms that the public shares in different organizations. The culture of the organization can affect the different levels of innovation as well as entrepreneurship through the process of socialization that has huge influence on the behavior of the individuals at workplace through different policies, procedures and structures that are perfectly shaped with the help of values as well as the beliefs of the organization. Carland and Carland(2015) commented that innovation of the environment as well as the culture helps in driving value creation in the organization. Boons and Ldeke-Freund (2013)generally emphasized in providing appropriate importance in the culture of the organization that will help in developing effective innovative as well as entrepreneurial behavior in order to address the dynamics of the market. However, concerning empirical plan, Galindo and Mndez (2014) found there are 400 employees in 20 SMEswherein there was no direct correlation between the performance of the business andinnovation. It seems that when the environment that is competitive in nature became dynamic, the earnings of the company were increased with the help of the culture(Galindo and Mndez 2014). With the results of the present study, the companies were inconclusive about the importance of the culture of the performance of the organization that is innovative in nature as well. Furthermore, there is a proper need in order to access the respective company that have developed organizational culture that helps in promoting as well as rewarding new ideas of performing the business properly. There are different elements regarding the structure of themanagement along with the hierarchy of the organizations as well with proper affect of innovation as well. All the companies in Melbourne were particularly engaged into different kind of activities wherein different resources are allocated in order to share similar strategic vision with respect to both entrepreneurship as well as innovation in the organizations. Furthermore, the companies shared an open attitude towards the new ventures as well as ideas that will help them in creating proper innovativeness in the process of entrepreneurship in the different organizations. The different findings have similar ideas as well as concepts to the ones of Galindo and Mndez (2014), who helped in exploring accurate and proper relationships among the size as well as the implementation of technology in the organization as well as the culture of the organization as well with the proper survey of more than 30 Australian dairy companies. It was also seen that there are different common areas of technological implementation between the small as large businesses and even between non-hierarchical as well hierarchical organizations. Conceptual Framework: Interaction between entrepreneurship as well as innovation Over the last few decades, entrepreneurship has received proper establishment in the legitimate field of the managerial as well as research practice. However, due to abundant increase in the literature, there is no unanimous definition of both innovation as well as entrepreneurship in a community and such concept is even used often loosely (Galindo and Mndez 2014). Therefore, there is large amount of perspectives of entrepreneurship and some of the definitions are as follows: Entrepreneurship is defined as the study of practice of the entrepreneurs along with their activities and characteristics and the social effect of the behavior along with the different modes of the support that are properly available in order to facilitate proper activities that are entrepreneurial in nature. In the narrow sense, entrepreneurship is defined as capturing ideas and then converting them into different products as well as services in order to create and build a venture to take the entire products and services into the market (Galindo and Mndez 2014). In fact, entrepreneurship is the multidimensional reality wherein the reality is difficult to identify. Innovation is the process that involves human agency wherein opportunities are provided to the individuals to pursue the objectives, as there are many researches on entrepreneurship that focuses on cognitive aspects only wherein the individuals entrepreneurs helps in recognizing the different opportunities for the creation of proper business (Qian 2013). Similarly, there are different ventures that are initiated in established corporations, a proper as well as large segment of the research focuses on corporate entrepreneurship (Dentchev et al. 2016). Galindo and Mndez (2014) commented that established corporations helps in focusing broadly on the concept of entrepreneurship that includes activities related to corporate innovation as well. Furthermore, it can also be argued that value intention is the essential block of building that helps in development of the sustainable innovation in the model of the business in the entire food sector. The companies in the food or dairy industry have various accurate as well as unique characteristics wherein the owners that the organizations are going to survive for indefinite future and this will help in proper growth as well as increase in the revenues of the organization as well. In order to create value intention in the conceptual framework proper owner as well as manager relationship has to be created as this will help in presenting important insights of the trade offs and other barriers when the ambitions of growth is addressed that are based on the economic, environmental as well as social aspects. Conclusions and Implications Therefore, the empirical study helped in exploring different synergies between the innovation as well as entrepreneurship through a proper review of the literature in the field and proper interviews were conducted in this particular field as well with 10 entrepreneurial as well as innovative organizations in Australia. There are different main findings that are as follows: Innovation as well as entrepreneurship are directly as well as positively related to each other and these interact in order to help the organizations to prosper Innovation as well as entrepreneurship are complementary in nature as the combination of these two play a vital role in the corporate success as well as sustainability in the dynamic world as well as in the changing environment Innovation as well as entrepreneurship are not confined in nature in the initial stages in starting a new venture, furthermore they are dynamic and holistic processes in the innovative as well as entrepreneurial organizations The study also helped in understanding that innovative as well as entrepreneurial organizations that are studied in the research are facing tremendous issues with the implementation of innovation as well as entrepreneurship. As innovation as well as entrepreneurship is the behaviors that are systematic in nature, proper as well as systematic efforts are necessary in nature into the different operations of the organizations that has to be performed by them. Innovation as well as entrepreneurship is regarded as the ongoing process as well as the everyday practice of the different organizations. The particular paper has even helped in enlightening the attitude of innovation of the different dairy food companies in Melbourne as well. It is also apparent in nature that the issues that are based on culture or the cultural issues has to be properly ascertained and addressed when proper examination is done on the levels of innovation as well as entrepreneurship. Furthermore, more comprehensi ve as well as systematic studies are required and it is essential in nature for the future in order to study the influence of the innovation culture on the performance of the organizations. Lastly, the innovation and entrepreneurship are complementary in nature and both can prosper in the future with proper implementation of both the things, as these are required in the organization for generating proper success in the organizations as well. References Anderson, N., Poto?nik, K. and Zhou, J., 2014. Innovation and creativity in organizations: A state-of-the-science review, prospective commentary, and guiding framework.Journal of Management,40(5), pp.1297-1333. Autio, E., Kenney, M., Mustar, P., Siegel, D. and Wright, M., 2014. Entrepreneurial innovation: The importance of context.Research Policy,43(7), pp.1097-1108. Boons, F. and Ldeke-Freund, F., 2013. Business models for sustainable innovation: state-of-the-art and steps towards a research agenda.Journal of Cleaner Production,45, pp.9-19. Carland, J.W. and Carland, J.C., 2015. A model of potential entrepreneurship: Profiles and educational implications.Journal of Small Business Strategy,8(1), pp.1-14. Carraher, S.M. and Paridon, T.J., 2015. Entrepreneurship journal rankings across the discipline.Journal of Small Business Strategy,19(2), pp.89-98. Chaston, I., 2017. Entrepreneurship. InTechnological Entrepreneurship(pp. 1-24).Springer International Publishing. Chatterji, A., Glaeser, E. and Kerr, W., 2014. Clusters of entrepreneurship and innovation.Innovation Policy and the Economy,14(1), pp.129-166. Chesbrough, H., Vanhaverbeke, W. and West, J. eds., 2014.New frontiers in open innovation. Oup Oxford. Chetty, S.K., Partanen, J., Rasmussen, E.S. and Servais, P., 2014. Contextualising case studies in entrepreneurship: A tandem approach to conducting a longitudinal cross-country case study.International Small Business Journal,32(7), pp.818-829. De Massis, A., Frattini, F. and Lichtenthaler, U., 2013. Research on technological innovation in family firms: Present debates and future directions.Family Business Review,26(1), pp.10-31. Demil, B., Lecocq, X., Ricart, J.E. and Zott, C., 2015. Introduction to the SEJ special issue on business models: business models within the domain of strategic entrepreneurship.Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal,9(1), pp.1-11. Dentchev, N., Baumgartner, R., Dieleman, H., Jhannsdttir, L., Jonker, J., Nyberg, T., Rauter, R., Rosano, M., Snihur, Y., Tang, X. and van Hoof, B., 2016. Embracing the variety of sustainable business models: social entrepreneurship, corporate intrapreneurship, creativity, innovation, and other approaches to sustainability challenges.Journal of Cleaner Production,113. Etzkowitz, H. and Zhou, C., 2017.The Triple Helix: UniversityIndustryGovernment Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Routledge. Galindo, M.. and Mndez, M.T., 2014. Entrepreneurship, economic growth, and innovation: Are feedback effects at work?.Journal of Business Research,67(5), pp.825-829. Kerr, W.R., 2013.US high-skilled immigration, innovation, and entrepreneurship: Empirical approaches and evidence(No. w19377). National Bureau of Economic Research. Kuratko, D.F., 2016.Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning. Kuratko, D.F., Hornsby, J.S. and Covin, J.G., 2014. Diagnosing a firm's internal environment for corporate entrepreneurship.Business Horizons,57(1), pp.37-47. Lisetchi, M. and Brancu, L., 2014. The entrepreneurship concept as a subject of social innovation.Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences,124, pp.87-92. Qian, H., 2013. Diversity versus tolerance: The social drivers of innovation and entrepreneurship in US cities.Urban Studies,50(13), pp.2718-2735. Read, S., Sarasvathy, S.D., Dew, N. and Wiltbank, R., 2016. Response to Arend, Sarooghi, and Burkemper (2015): Cocreating effectual entrepreneurship research.Academy ofmanagement Review,41(3), pp.528-536. Soriano, D.R. and Huarng, K.H., 2013. Innovation and entrepreneurship in knowledge industries.Journal of Business Research,66(10), pp.1964-1969. West, J. and Bogers, M., 2014. Leveraging external sources of innovation: a review of research on open innovation.Journal of Product Innovation Management,31(4), pp.814-831. Wright, M., 2014. Academic entrepreneurship, technology transfer and society: where next?.The journal of technology transfer,39(3), pp.322-334. Zhou, J., 2015.The Oxford handbook of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.Oxford University Press.

Monday, December 2, 2019

The Ultimate Guide to Clearing

The Ultimate Guide to Clearing This year's A Level results are due out on Thursday 18th August, and students up and down the country will finally find out whether they've managed to achieve the required grades for the courses they've applied for. For those who get the grades they need, August 18th will be a day of celebration as their Higher Education plans begin to fall into place. However, for those who don't get the grades they were expecting, results day sparks a period of stress, panic, and uncertainty. If you don't get the grades you were expecting on the 18th, don't worry; it's not the end of the line for you just yet! The UCAS Clearing process helps thousands of students each year to find alternative courses at their university of choice, or their chosen course at an alternative university. In fact, many students now use Clearing as a means of finding a more suitable course and university for their requirements. So what was once considered a Plan B is now becoming a Plan A for many students; and in the digital age it couldn't be easier to go through the Clearing process. We know you've got a lot of burning questions about Clearing, so we've tried to answer some of the more common ones here... Contents What is Clearing? Am I eligible for clearing? How can I prepare for clearing? If you already know that you'll be entering the Clearing process... If you weren't expecting to be going through Clearing... How do I enter Clearing? How do I find a course with Clearing? Who can I seek advice from? What are the alternatives to Clearing? What is Clearing? If you didn't get the grades you were hoping for, Clearing is the best way to find a place on a university course. Clearing is the process used by universities to fill up any vacancies on their courses; after all, the universities are just as keen to get bums on seats as you are to find a suitable degree course. The Clearing process is also a useful opportunity for students to find a spot on a similar course to the one they originally applied for, or to find a course at an entirely different university. In 2015, over 64,300 students found a place at university via Clearing; this equates to one in eight of all university acceptances! ¹Ã‚  No longer regarded as an option for underachieving students, Clearing is now a valuable method by which to find a university and course that you'll be happy with for the next three years. Return to Contents Am I eligible for clearing? There are several criteria that determine whether or not you are eligible to enter the Clearing process: You haven't achieved the required grades: This is the most common reason why students enter Clearing. Most universities offer a provisional place on a course based on your achieving certain grades. The university may consider accepting you if you just missed out on the desired grades, so call them first, and if they won't accept you then you can enter the Clearing process. You change your mind about your original choices: Even if you have achieved the required grades to be accepted onto your firm and/or insurance course choices, you can still turn your back on those choices and enter into Clearing to apply to a different uni or course. You applied before June 30th but don't have any offers: If you applied to universities before the closing date but haven't received any offers then you are eligible to enter the Clearing process. You applied to universities after June 30th: If you applied for courses after the deadline you will automatically be placed into Clearing after results day. Return to Contents How can I prepare for clearing? If you already know that you'll be entering the Clearing process... Clearing opens up on results day, so spend some time prior to that researching the universities and courses that appeal to you. Many universities publish information regarding vacancies a couple of weeks before results day, and they're open to you contacting them and stating your interest before you receive your results. As part of your pre-Clearing research it can be extremely helpful to check what the entry requirements are for any course you are considering applying for. Be realistic about the grades you expect to achieve; it's important to note that just because a course is available to you via Clearing, doesn't mean the university will have lowered the entry requirements. ​ . If you weren't expecting to be going through Clearing... If you were confident that you had achieved the grades you needed to get accepted by your firm or insurance choice, it can come as a bit of a shock to find out that you didn't make the grade. Some students can let the stress of the situation lead them into making a panicked decision and ending up on the wrong course. Being entered into Clearing doesn't mean you have failed, so wipe those negative thoughts from your head and focus your energy on finding a suitable course and location. In most cases it is easier to decide what you don't want to do, and narrow down your choices from there. For example if you don't want to compromise on the location, you'll need to compromise on the course, and vice versa. This process will leave you with a much smaller list of courses and universities that you are interested in, and will be less likely to lead to a rash decision. Return to Contents How do I enter Clearing? Visit the UCAS website to start or track an application. If you have already filled in and submitted your application, you'll be able to track it by clicking on the link. If you've been automatically entered into Clearing your Track status will say ‘You are in Clearing' or ‘Clearing has started'. If Track doesn't display either of these messages yet it might just be waiting for your results to come through before it updates itself. If it seems to be taking a while to update, UCAS advise students to contact the universities as they may still be considering you, even if your results aren't quite what were required. If you are entering Clearing without having previously applied through UCAS, you will still need to complete an application and personal statement; the only difference is you won't be able to select any course choices at the application stage. You will still need to pay the relevant application fee too, which is currently  £23 for multiple course applications. If you have simply changed you mind about your initial firm or insurance university and wish to enter Clearing instead, you'll need to contact the university and ask them to release you so that you can enter the Clearing system. Without your individual Clearing number you won't be able to apply for any other courses, so it's important to make sure they release you promptly. Return to Contents How do I find a course with Clearing? There are several ways in which you can search for vacancies once you've entered Clearing: Search online using The Telegraph's course search tool Search online using the UCAS course search tool Use The Telegraph's Clearing App for iPhone Use The Telegraph's Clearing App for Android Once you've found a course that you're interested in, the first thing you must do is to contact the university directly BEFORE entering the course in Track! If you enter a course in Track before the university has accepted you, they might reject your application, and you won't be able to apply for anything else until they reject and release you back into Clearing. You won't be able to add a choice to Track until 5pm on results day for this very reason, so use the time leading up to 5pm to phone universities and find a suitable course that is willing to accept you. Return to Contents Who can I seek advice from? Entering into Clearing can come as a shock to some students, and it may mean that you're not thinking straight. Choosing the right university and course for you is not something that you should rush into, so if you're panicking after getting your results, seek some advice from the following sources: Friends, family, and teachers: Before you leave the school after getting your results, take some time to speak to some of the teachers and see what advice they are able to offer you. They go through this each year with A Level students so they know the drill! It's also a good idea to speak to your parents and any older siblings, cousins, friends etc who have gone through the process before you. Likewise, chat with your fellow A Level students on results day and find out what their thought processes are, and see what you can learn from them. UCAS: The entire university application process, including Clearing, is organised by UCAS, so if you're looking for advice on anything to do with Clearing, they are the best people to speak to. There are a variety of ways to contact UCAS so find the best one for you and get in touch with the experts. Learn Direct: They offer useful careers advice which can help you to identify your strengths and help you to choose a course based on the type of career that you have in mind. BBC: The BBC's website is a hub of useful information for students; visit their ‘Is uni for you?' page for advice and articles that can help you to decide whether university is really the right path for you to take. The Student Room: This is a useful website and forum for students to seek and share advice, and talk to other students who are, or have been, in the same situation. Return to Contents What are the alternatives to Clearing? If you didn't get the grades that you needed for university, Clearing isn't the only option available to you. There are a number of other options that might be more suitable for you instead, including: Adjustment: This is an option for students who have met and exceeded their firm offer, but no longer wish to accept their first choice university. It means you can hold onto your firm choice whilst looking around for a better offer. Record of Prior Acceptance – AKA Direct Entry: This tends to be the preferred method of mature students who either want to study locally, or are applying late but have a clear idea of what they want to study. Applications are made direct to the university rather than via UCAS; however, not all institutions will let you apply in this way. Taking a gap year: You have the right to withdraw your application at any time before you start university, and can take a year out from education and re-apply for entry on a course the following year. If you have any doubts as to where you want to go, or what you want to study then take this year to have a good think about how whether university is for you, and if so, which one. Tuition fees are not cheap, so don't squander that money away on a course that won't enhance your life in any way! Re-sit your A Levels: If you didn't get the grades you needed to get into university you could ask to re-sit them and reapply for courses for the year after. Speak to your college to find out whether this is an option that they offer. Do an apprenticeship: The process of being rejected from your firm and insurance universities can make some students stop and realise that doing a degree is not actually what they want to do. There are a wide variety of apprenticeships available across almost every industry, so whatever interests you, you're sure to find an apprenticeship to suit your needs. Return to Contents