Top 20 places where students love to study

University admissions officers rarely admit that applying for a degree place will be anything but plain sailing. But this year, even they acknowledge that restrictions on the number of places will make for unusually tough competition.

Applications are up by almost 9 per cent and, although there will be 10,000 extra places at universities in the new academic year, most of these will be taken up by students already going through the system. Even universities that normally struggle to fill their places are expecting to turn applicants away. The number of places available in Clearing is certain to be sharply reduced.

This was meant to be the year that university applicants had more choice, rather than less.

For the first time, candidates whose results turn out to be better than the offers they are holding will have five days to try their luck with other universities. But some of the top universities have already made it clear that by then they will be full.

Other institutions will have places when the ‘adjustment period’ takes place at the end of August, but probably not in the most popular subjects. For all the good intentions, the new system may do more harm - in the form of frustration for individuals and bad publicity for universities - than good.

Yet all is not lost if you are still do not have an offer for 2009. Thousands of courses are available in the Ucas Extra system, which allows applicants to continue the search for a place well before the annual scramble that is Clearing.

Some 5,300 places were filled through Extra last year – a lot less than the 44,000 filled in Clearing but still 50 per cent more than in 2007. Users of Extra were able to avoid the stresses of Clearing and take their time examining the many degrees identified with an ‘x’ on the website of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.

Prospective students who are not holding any offers have until the end of June to make further applications – one at a time – until they secure an offer that they want to accept.

Nor are the options confined to the less prestigious universities, which tend to dominate Clearing. You will not find Oxford or Cambridge among the Extra listings but, if you have the right qualifications, you can try Edinburgh for geography or zoology, Imperial College London for geology or biochemistry, or York for archaeology or social policy.

Manchester, the most popular university in terms of total applications, has more than 400 courses listed, including English language, Latin and drama. Nottingham, another of the favourite choices, has more than 300.

Even in the most popular subject of all – law – there are places available at universities such as Aberdeen, Birmingham and Sheffield. The standard offer at Sheffield is still three As at A level, but the proliferation of high grades is such that even sixth-formers who are heading for a full set of As can be without a place at this time of year, if they have set their sights too high in making their original applications.

If you are looking for a course in engineering or another of the subjects where the pressure on places is less intense, you can take your pick from hundreds of courses all over the UK. Only a handful of universities do not have a course in Extra somewhere.

This summer may be difficult for some, but most reasonably-qualified candidates should still find a course. In each of the past six years, there have been 1.3 applicants to the place and many of those who were unplaced dropped out of their own accord.

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