Not too late for student clearing

About one in five Ucas applicants does not have a place

Prospective university students mulling their options after failing to get the exam grades they needed still have a week to apply through clearing.

The admissions service Ucas says there are more than 100,000 people who have not found places.

And there are more than 30,000 places still available at higher education institutions around the UK.

The last date for receipt of applications through the clearing system is 20 September.

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Clearing aims to match would-be students with courses that still have vacancies.

Overall 428,265 applicants have been accepted this year compared with 393,595 at the same point last year. Of the total, more than 33,000 went through clearing.

But that leaves 109,303 applicants eligible for clearing.

A spokesman said there were a variety of reasons why someone might have applied through Ucas but not completed the process.

But typically it meant they had not got the grades they needed for their chosen courses and were weighing up their options.

Ucas has produced a map of the UK showing the varying proportions of applicants who are still eligible for clearing but have not registered with the service.

The map shows higher proportions of people eligible for clearing around the major cities, but with a few rural hotspots such as Norfolk and the South West of England, parts of south Wales such as Merthyr Tydfil and Blaenau Gwent, and a broad swathe across central southern Scotland.