London Evening Standard/London

London universities were yesterday braced for an unprecedented rush for places as experts predicted a clearing “free for all”.

Institutions in the capital have drafted in about 1,000 staff to man call centres to cope with demand from students looking to secure a course today.

Experts say this year’s post A-level rush will be the busiest yet as the cap on the number of bright students that universities can take has been lifted.

More than 300,000 teenagers get their exam results today and more of them than ever are expected to want to “trade up” and change courses. One London university has quadrupled the number of staff manning its clearing centre to 240 and hired a call centre for them to use.

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: “It looks like it will be the busiest year for clearing. The way universities are manning their call centres seems to suggest they think so too.

“Universities will have people manning the phones marketing themselves madly. It looks like it’s going to be a very hectic year.”

For the first time universities will be able to accept as many students with  ABB grades as they can get. This means that those who do better than expected will be able to “trade up” to better institutions whereas in the past they were tied to their accepted offers.

Professor Smithers said this will have a knock-on effect on mid-ranking universities, which could lose their ABB students, while those at lower ranking universities could lose students who find they can do a degree more cheaply at a Further Education college.

Professor Smithers added: “Under the old arrangements there was a gentleman’s agreement that students were tied to an acceptance offer. Now it is more of a free for all.”

Tricia King, pro-vice master for student experience at Birkbeck, where 80 staff will be answering telephones, said: “For us, this year will undoubtedly be the busiest clearing yet.”

Kingston University is increasing the number of staff manning its phones today from 55 to 240.

London South Bank University will have 110 people taking calls, University of East London will employ 150 staff, and St George’s will have 10 — double last year’s number.

At SOAS 15 staff will be answering telephones, at Royal Holloway there will be 60 and Greenwich university will have 110 people on hand. At Queen Mary there will be 40 staff, as well as a Twitter feed to keep students up to date.