She quickly headed to the careers adviser at her sixth-form college and phoned universities that were advertising vacancies for law courses in the clearing system.

A record number of school-leavers have found a university place through the clearing system.

Thousands more adults who have lost their jobs since the application deadline at the end of June are expected to flood the clearing system.

It explained that a batch of transactions it submitted to the clearing system was reJected.

The banks are able to transfer funds from one bank account to another by way of the clearing system.