Thousands call university hotline

Some 30,000 students get a university place through clearing yearly

Thousands of students have been ringing the university admissions helpline and checking its website since receiving their A-level results.

More than a third of a million university applicants have had their places confirmed - up 9.1% on 2007.

A further 2,628 applicants have already gained a university place through clearing - the system by which would-be students are matched with free places.

Ucas said 111,388 applicants were eligible for clearing this year.

Clearing tends to be used by applicants who have not managed to secure a place at university or college for the current year.

Hard work

It begins in July and it can help people to find suitable vacancies on higher education courses.

More than 30,000 people gain a place during the clearing process every year.

By 1300 BST on Thursday, some 6,160 students had called the Ucas helpline and some 307,924 searches for Clearing vacancies had been made on the Ucas website.

And the service candidates use to check their status had received 451,331 log-ins by midday. At the peak, there were 86 log-ins per second.

Ucas chief executive Anthony McClaran congratulated students and teachers for their hard work.

He said: "I’d like to thank all of the staff at Ucas that have performed magnificently to support the process of confirming exam results over the weekend, manning the phones on our helpline and ensuring that our support services operate as effectively as possible.

"Our admissions colleagues in the universities and colleges have worked incredibly hard to ensure that, despite the very large rise in the number of applications, decisions are being made quicker than ever."