Almost 334,000 people have accepted college places in Britain, an increase of 6,000 on last year. But it's not enough. As term starts there are still some 13,000 vacant places. Britain's higher education funding councils have provided for an extra 19,000 full-time places for students starting courses this autumn, according to the Guardian, and it is claimed that up to 1,000 academic jobs are threatened. The new universities are worst hit.

The latest figures from Britain's Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) show that on September 29th, 290,280 applicants had their conditional offers confirmed while 43,518 had found a place through clearing.

Clearing is the process whereby vacant places are advertised. Each year more first-year college places are on offer through clearing than are available in the entire Irish CAO system. More than 2,000 people from the Republic have accepted UCAS places.

Near-final figures will be published by UCAS tomorrow but the increase in acceptances is unlikely to come close to filling the 13,000 vacancies.