In Britain, 2009 has become a nightmare for many young people wanting to go to University (in Britain, University means nearly everything after the British "bac", called A-levels).
In fact, it is the Universities which chose their students through a long process which is run by a body called UCAS.
This year, 50,000 would-be students have not been accepting by any university, and they will probably not be able to continue their studies.
The reason for this situation is the lack of money provided by the government who did not expect so many applicants. The reason for the increase of applicants seems to be the economic crisis, which leads many young people to choose to continue their studies, as there is no job for them anyway.
The situation is all the more embarrassing for the government that they officially want to reach a level of 50% of young people to go to university.
Finally, the cost of joining a university is approximately €4500 per year on average, and few grants are awarded to students, so many of them have to borrow money from the banks, something which has become very difficult this year.
Detailed description of the UCAS process.
As nearly all British higher education institutions are members of UCAS, all those wishing to study for first degrees in the UK must apply through UCAS. This applies to all categories of applicants - UK residents, residents of the Channel Islands and 
Isle of Man, European Union citizens, and other international applicants. Applicants submit a single application via UCAS's website with a list of up to five courses for which they are applying, in no order of preference. All five choices are confidential during the application process so universities and colleges considering an application cannot see any of the candidate's other choices. Applications must be completed by the middle of the January of the year that the student wishes to start university.
Those applying for medicine, dentistry and veterinary science courses can only make up to four choices (although the other choice can be used to apply for different courses). Those applying for Art and Design Route B courses can only choose up to three courses, which must be in order of preference; Route B applicants have until March to apply to allow them time to complete their portfolios.
Finally, applications to the highly selective Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are treated slightly differently by UCAS. Oxbridge candidates must apply by an earlier deadline in October the year before the student wishes to start university. This also applies to Medicine, Dentistry and Veterinary science applicants for all British Universities. An additional restriction on applications to Oxbridge is that it is not possible to apply simultaneously to both Cambridge and Oxford.
The application also includes current qualifications, employment and criminal history, a personal statement and a reference (which generally includes predicted grades if the applicant is still in education). The application is then forwarded by UCAS to the institutions applied to, who decide whether to make an offer of a place.
Students, whose applications are submitted by the deadline, would usually expect to receive either offers or rejections from all five choices by 28 March. If candidates find themselves without any offers or have declined all of their offers, they may apply for an additional course that still has sufficient places through the process of UCAS Extra in April. Otherwise, they would go through the UCAS Clearing process.
Offers are either conditional, i.e. dependent on future examination performance, or unconditional. Once the applicant has received responses from all the institutions applied to, they must respond by accepting up to two choices, one Firm Acceptance and one Insurance Acceptance, whereas the remainder are Declined.
Clearing
The major exception to the rule of application through UCAS comes at the very end of the admissions season, when courses are about to begin. After the announcement of A-level results, UCAS runs a process called clearing to match applicants without places at their chosen institutions with courses elsewhere that still have places available. However once UCAS's clearing operation is complete, institutions with available places do advertise publicly, and some students find places by direct application at that stage.
Extra
For applicants who fail to obtain any offers, or elect to decline any offers they have received, UCAS offers the candidate an "extra" chance to apply to a sixth institution, in addition to the five the applicant initially applied to. This is an automatic process, which is advertised only to eligible candidates. Extra is a chance for applicants to take another chance at applying to their chosen course, or if plans have changed, the applicant can choose to apply to a different course.
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