A British education is just a few clicks away

Do you want to set off "on a big adventure"? Then the UCAS website, home recently to that slightly juvenile phrase, might be just the launching pad you need.

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service deals with entry into colleges in Britain and Northern Ireland. And, as websites go, www.ucas.com is one to conjure with.

It's a dream to negotiate, with comprehensive sections on courses, facts, figures, news, advice, applicant queries, and, of course, the topical "clearing 2001". Clearing is the process that puts unfilled places in UK universities up for grabs.

What it means, simply put, is that there are still thousands of places out there waiting for the right applicants.

Each year, more than 50,000 people find places through clearing. Already, this year, more than 13,000 people have found a course that suits them.

Logging on last week, the alphabetical list of vacancies ranged from accommodation management and accountancy to calligraphy, care management, Caribbean studies, footwear design, forensic science, and finally, skipping rapidly down the alphabet, yacht studies and zoology.

If, like me, you can't resist the lure of a Caribbean island (never been but have yearned), then you'll head straight for Caribbean studies. This is offered by the University of North London and comes in a variety of combinations: with law, tourism or leisure studies.

Sadly, that's all the information you'll find on the UCAS clearing section about a particular course (course codes, course title and college name). If you're really interested, it's time to go to the college website and find out more about the particular course and college.

The numbers of Irish students accepting places in colleges in Britain and Northern Ireland has been falling, probably as a result of a combination of factors: the introduction of a sliding scale of fees there; the abolition of fees and increased number of places here; and the sterling exchange rate.

Last year, the most popular regions for students from the Republic were Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, London, the west midlands, and the south-east, according to the British Council.

Within those, the favourite colleges were the University of Ulster, Queen's University Belfast, Thames Valley, London, Middlesex, Glamorgan, Kingston, Dundee and St Mary's, Strawberry Hill. (For a look at some of their websites, see the panels below.) The advent of the UCAS and college websites means students, and their parents, can find out about vacancies and research the course and college without leaving their living rooms.

However, if you're hoping to gain a place through clearing, you should remember that many of the more popular courses such as medicine and paramedical courses have been filled. Not all universities, colleges and courses have vacancies in clearing - and some vacancies may be filled very quickly. You must of course meet the minimum entry requirements for a course in terms of your results.

The advice from the UCAS website is to make a list of courses and then start contacting the universities and colleges about the courses that interest you. UCAS recommends that prospective students telephone, e-mail or call in person.

Most people who use clearing have already applied through UCAS but have not secured a place on a course. However, you can apply for places in clearing, regardless of whether you have applied already.

If you haven't applied previously, you must complete an application form: UCAS will process applications until September 20th. After that date, contact colleges directly.

And if you're unsure how to go about it, the website has a step-by-step guide as well as a section on commonly asked questions.

CLOSER to home, the CAO website, www.cao.ie, has been attracting lots of attention from students. Offers can now be accepted online and there is an updated list of course vacancies.

Most people will have some degree of familiarity with the various Irish colleges and their hinterlands so, while the CAO site is eminently useful to students from the Republic, it's not quite as much fun as trawling though the UCAS website, where course titles tend to the more exotic, and the colleges are unexplored territory.

However, if you're taking the UCAS homepage adage to heart and thinking of setting off on "a big adventure", you should take a little time to consider the implications of study abroad.

The sun always shines in the photographs on college websites, your would-be fellow students always wear the most welcoming grins, and even the campus buildings are showing off their best angles. In real life, it ain't necessarily so.