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By David Barrett

A spokesman for the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas), which operates the system which matches students who failed to achieve required grades with spare course places, said 419,000 students have been accepted to university so far.

The figure is due to rise to around 480,000, meaning around 200,000 people who applied to attend university this year will be left without a place.

But while some continue to search for places through clearing, others will have withdrawn their applications or rejected offers earlier this year, making the final total impossible to predict at this stage.

This year's clearing process is particularly important for A-level students who missed out on their grades because if they delay their studies until next year annual course fees will rise from £3,250 to a maximum of £9,000, under the Coalition's higher education reforms.

A record 682,514 people applied for university places this year with just over 192,000 people still able to apply through clearing, Ucas figures show.

Mary Curnock Cook, head of Ucas, 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 per cent 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 Ms Curnock Cook.

A-Level results for more than 250,000 students were published on Thursday and some students will now drop out and not enter clearing.

The overall A*-E A-Level pass rate soared to a record 97.8%. Telegraph