A-level results 2015: Number of students placed in UK higher education through Clearing is 'record rise', Ucas confirms

Total number of people placed in university and college is now almost 453,000 – an increase of 3% on last year

(Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The number of people who have found a place in UK higher education through Clearing has reached almost 30,000 following last week’s record-setting A-level results day.

This number is a rise of six per cent on last year and is the highest number to ever be recorded by Ucas at this early confirmation stage, the admissions body confirmed.

The total number of people who have now been placed in UK higher education is almost 453,000 – an increase of three per cent on the same point last year.

Ucas highlighted how the weekend following A-level results day always sees high numbers be accepted through the Clearing process – but added the patterns of recent years suggest this number could double by the end of the application cycle.

Ucas’ chief executive, Mary Curnock Cook, described the post-results reaction and said: “We saw an energetic Clearing period over the weekend, with many universities holding open days and staffed to take calls from students.”

This year saw the highest number of university and college acceptances ever recorded on A-level results day, as some 362,000 students found themselves being accepted into their first choice – up by three per cent on last year.

The 2015 pass rate for the exams saw a rise, bringing it back to the record level set two years ago.

Figures showed the overall rate had risen to 98.1 per cent – up by 0.1 per cent on 2014 which was the first year it has slumped after more than two decades of rises.

Ucas said over 143,000 people are still free to be placed in Clearing – which is down by four per cent on last year – and said this number will go down as the number of placed applicants rises.

Some applicants in this unplaced group will not have met their offer conditions, others will have received no offers earlier in the year, and some have chosen not to accept any offers at all.

The admissions body assured those students who do not yet hold any offers that they can enter Clearing up until 21 September if they choose to.