With many UK students receiving their A Level results last week, the time has started to enter clearing if you cannot get in to your chosen university. Clearing is how universities and colleges fill up spare places they have on their courses.

If you had a conditional offer from a college or university and did not meet the grades required or do not want to accept any of the offers you did have then you can apply for clearing. This must be done after the 30th of June.

Once you have applied for a place, you will usually need to wait to hear back from them as to if you have been accepted. This can be a stressful period, but there are often more places available than you think and some students have ended up going to a university which was better suited to them than their initial first choice.