The UCAS website has crashed. UCAS is the clearing which is used by students who do not attain the grades required for their first choice university.
UCAS are now providing help via Facebook (facebook.com/ucasonline)Â and Twitter (twitter.com/#!/ucas_online)Â which is handy as the UCAS system has crashed. According to the Twitter page there are 2 people who work on the Twitter site, so they may have a busy morning! I hope that the UCAS Social Media Advisers John Madden and Scott Elliott manage to meed the demand of eager students.
If you attempt the view the website in Google Chrome then you just get this response:
No data received Unable to load the web page because the server sent no data. Here are some suggestions: Reload this web page later. Error 324 (net::ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE): The server closed the connection without sending any data.
It is the Track website system – ucas.com/students/track – on the ucas website that has failed due to 4 times as many people accessing the website as during the same period past year. The Track system is the part which logs student enquiries so that they can be better managed.
As a result of this failure UCAS they have had to take the entire system offline while they fix the issue. Hopefully the problem can be resolved quickly, however if it is more than a case of server resources then the resolution could take a while as the software will need to be recoded to allow for the increased demand.
Record Numbers of A Level Students
Record numbers of students are going on to university despite the increases in tuition fees. The main driver is that there are no jobs for young people at the moment.
Many students are concerned about rising fees but accept that this is the price you have to now pay for a degree. There is also an increase in demand for Welsh universities as the Welsh
UCAS Telephone Lines are Open
Phone lines are open still. When I went to Uni there was not much in the way of the Internet, I think UCAS involved filling in a form and posting it somewhere!
Call UCAS direct on 0871 468 0468 if you cannot access the website. There are hundreds of staff eager to help.
One tip from me: if you fail to get anywhere with UCAS and find yourself with no place at Uni, wait a while and then phone around the Uni departments when things quieten down. I got in to Coventry University by calling the head of geography from a telephone box (yes, before mobile phones!) in Preston. Quick interview on the phone got me a place.
