Thousands miss out in rush for clearing places

Clearing places have disappeared at record speed this year, with an unprecedented number of university applicants chasing a smaller number of vacancies.

Following a cap on student numbers introduced in October 2008, demand for last-minute places to study was more competitive than ever.

Universities reported that their supply of clearing places, which in previous years had taken over a week to fill, was this year exhausted just two days after the release of A-level results.

Anthony McClaran, Chief Executive at the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) said: "As predicted this year has been exceptional in many ways. We have seen a 12 per cent increase in accepted applicants. Confirmation and clearing activity this year was always going to be challenging, but, as predicted, it has been quick and competitive so far."

The increase in the number of applications comes alongside the highest A-level results in three years, resulting in large numbers of students with top marks not finding a university place.

With students struggling to find places across the country, university admissions tutors say they were forced to reject students with exceptional marks.

Newspaper reports have highlighted the cases of several students with three or more A-grades who have been unable to find a university place.

Commenting on the situation National Union of Students (NUS) President Wes Streeting said: "We are concerned that many university applicants will be disappointed this summer. The Government may have recently increased university places by 10,000, but thousands of people who have applied are still going to be without a place.

"We understand the current pressures on public finances, but the government must also make the right long-term decisions. It is surely better to bear the cost of additional university places now than to shoulder the burden of long-term unemployment later.

"There is a strong case for the funding councils to relax penalties for institutions which over-recruit. While it is important to maintain the unit of resource per student, all universities need to pull their weight and expand where possible. We need to ensure that the opportunities of a generation are not limited because their education was deemed to be unaffordable."

According to UCAS statistics, Scottish university applications were up 11 per cent at the beginning of September, with more students finding places throughout the month.

This year, the University of Edinburgh received almost 50,000 applications for 4,700 available places, offering no clearing places as a result.

Other Scottish universities offered significantly smaller amounts of clearing places compared to the year before, with Edinburgh Napier filling less than 100 places in a couple of days and Queen Margaret University offering less than 60 places.