Thousands of students were forced to wait up to an extra week to discover whether they had a university place this year because of failings in the admissions process.

Admissions staff described this summer as "the worst ever" in terms of hitches during clearing - the scramble to match places to students who did not achieve their predicted A-level grades.

Campuses blamed the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service for the chaos, and some said they wanted an alternative system.

Heads of admissions offices have accused Ucas of sending them enormous computer files that wiped out their records or replaced them with gobbledegook.

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They also said students rejected by their preferred university were unable to tell whether their second-choice institution had offered them a place.

In some cases, confirmations of offers and rejections did not appear on the system.

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One director of admissions at a Russell Group university, who did not want to be named, said: "Thousands of students will have been hanging around for up to a week this summer not knowing whether their university place has been confirmed or an offer has been made to them because of data transfer problems at Ucas.

"Some may have lost a good place in clearing because of this.

"If there were an alternative to Ucas, we would be looking into using it."

Another head of admissions reported that some 8 per cent of applications to his university had had to be "repaired" by IT technicians at a cost of Pounds 50,000.

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Another complained: "Everything seems to have collapsed. When you don't have adequate data and you are advising academic departments on numbers it is very risky."

Anthony McClaran, chief executive of Ucas, admitted in an e-mail discussion forum that the patience of admissions staff had been "severely stretched".

His organisation has replaced its computer system this year, and it is moving towards 100 per cent electronic applications; these changes could account for hitches.

Virginia Isaac, marketing director at Ucas, said: "We understand the frustration of those who are having to deal with a number of operational problems at this most pressured time of year. We are working very hard to resolve the problems that have been raised with us."

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Just over 16,000 students have so far gained a place in clearing this year - 786 more compared with the same time last year, despite fewer students applying to university overall.