Record 200,000 to miss out on university

• More than 600,000 people applied for university this year • Ucas website received 644 hits per second on Thursday Around 200,000 people will miss out on places at UK universities this year, the highest number on record. The number of students filling vacancies through clearing has reached 13,000, with about 62,000 university places remaining, said the admissions body Ucas. So far 419,000 students have already been accepted with Ucas expecting this figure to rise to around 480,000. A record 682,514 people applied for university places this year with just over 192,000 still able to apply through clearing, Ucas figures show. Mary Curnock Cook, head of Ucas, said the Ucas website received 644 hits per second on Thursday. She told BBC News that 65,000 people who have already applied for places are still awaiting decisions from universities, while 62,000 places remain. “The total number of applicants was up by about 1% this year, so it is more than ever before,” she said. Clearing matches students who did not get the grades they needed, or who turned down offers or received none, to courses with vacancies. “The number in clearing is a self-balancing figure so as that goes down that is a good thing because it means that more people have been placed through the main scheme in choices they have been considering for a number of months,” said Curnock Cook. A-Level results were published on Thursday and some students will now drop out and not enter clearing. The overall A*-E A-level pass rate rose to a record 97.8%. More than 250,000 students received their results on Thursday. Universities minister David Willetts said: “There will be more students at university this autumn than ever before and we are repeating the 10,000 extra places this year. “More than 338,000 applicants achieved the grades they needed and are now off to university. For those who did not get the results they had hoped for, there are nearly 30,000 courses with vacancies available in clearing.” Higher education Clearing Students A-levels Schools David Batty guardian.co.uk

Posted by on August 20, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.