In reply to @ShriramKMurthi
@ShriramKMurthi Clearing is for students who didn't get the grades necessary for the unis they got offers from. In England and Wales, unis make offers before you've got your grades. When results come out, there's a mad dash to find a place
In reply to @christianp
@ShriramKMurthi Unis below the top tier, i.e. not Oxford or Cambridge, try to get students who didn't apply to them but are at least as good as the students who did (and now, just try to bulk out their numbers with students they can just about justify taking)