Now with the end of their exams and summer officially arrived it can be tough for students to keep track of all the different universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) deadlines that they need to keep to in order to start their university education.

For students wanting to apply to universities to study in 2016, June 30th marks the deadline for UCAS applications – from July 1st, any student applications received are automatically entered into the Clearing process.

Last year approximately 60,000 students found a place through Clearing, with an increasing number using the service to bag a better uni. Following changes to admission rules that now allow universities to ‘recruit’ as many students as they can, opinion around Clearing has continued to change. Universities are also changing the way they see Clearing, Russell Group organisations have proved Clearing is no longer the consolation prize it once was. Last year Oxford, UCL, Cambridge and LSE chose to opt out of Clearing but the vast majority of Russell Group universities had vacancies available to students.

Students also use the process to their advantage and apply for places for lots of reasons not just the historic misconception that they received different results from what they had expected – they may have had a change of heart or circumstances and used Clearing to alter the course or institution they want to study at.

Although the mechanics of clearing are still traditionally the same with anxious calls on results day, the attitude and mechanism of connecting students to available courses is still an important one for all involved.