The great university crush of 2010 is over. Clearing officially ends on 30 September but, while a few places remain -- the University of East London still has space for podiatry students and the University of Northampton could offer you a waste management degree -- that is pretty much it.

So, as the students who won the university jackpot pack up their panini toasters and the losers scramble to sort out gap years or hunt for work, everyone is wondering why more than a quarter of university applicants -- nearly 190,000 -- were left without confirmed places on A-level results day this year. And with 150,000 thought to have missed out completely, students and schools are asking what happened. Has this generation of teenagers been badly advised by teachers, or cheated by the government?

This year's underlying problem was all down to a simple mismatch in supply and demand, according to Kenton Lewis, head of student recruitment at St George's, University of London. "It's the effect of the huge effort that has been put into promoting the benefits of university over the last few years. The government and universities did a huge amount to promote fair access and ensure that people from all sectors of society are getting into it. It paid off, and now many more students are interested in university."

The recession also made university an attractive way to sit out a period of joblessness. But, at the same time, a new government-imposed cap on student numbers, where over-recruiting universities were threatened with fines costing thousands of pounds per extra student, squeezed supply. Next year, many believe the university crush will be even worse as this summer's disappointed students queue up to have another go.

"There will be a knock-on effect," warns Helen Diffenthal, assistant principal at the Sixth Form College, Farnborough. "Term hasn't yet started, but already we're seeing more post-qualifications students, people who missed out on university this year but want to study more and apply again."

Colleges, schools and universities are now looking at what they can learn from this year's experience. "Information and advice will be key," says Lewis, who echoes comments made by the universities minister, David Willetts, that well qualified applicants should lower their expectations and "look at applying for slightly less competitive universities".

"We need to ensure students are very realistic about the choices they make in their Ucas applications," says Lewis. "Everyone needs a back-up plan -- for example, exclusively applying to medicine courses isn't in a student's interest, they should also apply for biomedical science, which is less competitive." St George's has set up a scheme called "second chances" to provide students and parents with personalised advice about its programmes, plus realistic admissions requirements. Lewis hopes similar initiatives will be rolled out elsewhere.

The findings of the Browne reviewof higher education funding, to be published next month, will be key for future demand for student places. But admissions tutors still fear, as Thames Valley University's head of recruitment Lynn Grimes puts it, that "the situation will only get cumulatively worse".

So what do this year's unlucky rejects think of what has happened to them? And what are they going to do now?

Amy Halsall, 18, studied A-levels in philosophy, politics and history at Cheltenham Ladies' College. She got two As and a B.

"A year ago, I expected to be packing for university right now, getting excited about starting the next phase of my life," says Amy, who applied to read politics and international relations at university after achieving all A*s and As at GCSE. "Instead, I'm spending the next few months working in a bar, and feel like my life is on hold."

After receiving offers from Bath, Exeter and Nottingham, Amy set her heart on Bath, which gave her a conditional offer of three As. "I felt quite confident of achieving them," she says. "And I thought the exams went OK. I didn't think I screwed any up, so I thought my plans would all work out. Everyone I knew was applying to university, I didn't really consider doing anything else."

On results day, however, Amy and her mum were driving to school when she checked the Ucas site on her phone, and discovered she'd missed her Bath offer. "It was horrible. I burst into tears," she says. "I was sitting there trying to work out what it meant, but when I got to school and found out I missed my A in history by one point, I thought maybe I'll be OK." She phoned Bath, but was told they wouldn't accept anything less than three As.

Her insurance offer, from Exeter, required the same grades.

Amy tried clearing. "I called so many places: Leeds, Nottingham, others I can't even remember, but they were only offering places to international students," she says. "Their first question was, are you a home student or international student, and when I said 'home', each university replied, 'sorry, we've got no places'."

Amy was devastated. "I know universities need money, but I don't think that should mean home students are discriminated against," she says.

"The government encouraged everybody to go to university, but when I tried to do that, I was just told 'we're full'. It feels a bit hypocritical. I tried really hard to get my offer -- I just got unlucky in one exam and panicked -- and now I'm being punished."

On the evening of results day, Amy's friends celebrated, but she stayed home. "I just felt like I failed. I guess I have done. I got two As and a B -- it's not like that's a bad set of grades, but that B ruined everything. I couldn't get in anywhere. I think it's much more difficult for my generation. Ten years ago, my brother applied to university and dropped a grade but was still given his place."

Amy is now working in a bar in Chelsea and plans to re-sit some history modules to boost her B up to an A. "All my friends are getting ready to go to university, while I'm kind of stuck, not really moving on," she says. "I'm definitely going to re-apply to university, but I'm going to lower my expectations this year to make sure I get a place. I considered applying to study in America but it's too far away -- my mother would kill me. I'm just hoping my experience next year will end more happily."

Guy Gray, 18, took A-levels in maths, physics and computing at Brighton, Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College. He got a B and two Cs.

"I think education is one of the most important things you can have in life, but with mine I've just ended up feeling like a statistic," says Guy. He had received university offers ranging from all A*s and As to AAB to study engineering at Imperial, Bath and Warwick. "I was used to doing well at school, and my teachers thought I wouldn't have a problem. After the exams, I thought I'd definitely get to university because they seemed to have gone really well."

But when he arrived at school on results day, Guy discovered he had a B and two Cs. "Everyone around me was celebrating, but I felt a bit out of the loop," he says. Guy hunted for places in clearing. "There was nothing there," he says. "There were no courses that were at all similar to the ones I wanted to do.

He is still keen to be an engineer. "So I'm going to do retakes. I was hoping to find a job, but it's all a bit depressing because of the job market. I've had to sign on.

"This year seems worse than any other time. My cousin, who is about eight years older than me, applied to a similar engineering course at Bath and got a grade lower than me -- BCD -- but he still got in. It's not my fault I turned 18 just as the economy went bad."

Guy wishes he had received better advice about apprenticeships, training schemes and other alternatives to university. "At college I didn't know anyone who was thinking about doing anything else, and the teachers didn't talk about any other options," he says. "Schools should give more information about the different routes that you can take, especially since the lack of university places looks set to get worse.

"Most people think university is the be-all and end-all. I still want to be an engineer, but I'm not sure if I'll go to university. I'll try looking into other training routes like HNDs [higher national diplomas], and BTec, but I don't even know where to go for information. There's a careers suite at college, but the people there weren't much help. I don't really understand why the government has to limit university places so much and impose penalties on universities. I just feel a bit lost."

Hannah Scott (not her real name), 18, did A-levels in Spanish, English literature and psychology at a grammar school in Bristol. She got two Bs and a C.

Hannah needed three Bs to hit her conditional offers from Newcastle and Manchester universities to study linguistics, but missed her final B by eight marks and both institutions rejected her. Then she failed to find a place she wanted in Clearing.

"When I phoned up, universities told me, nicely, that I didn't have the grades and so there wasn't a space for me," she says. "Being eight marks off what they wanted was really annoying, but I know there would have been other people in clearing who were one mark off. One of my friends got A*AA and didn't get a single offer from any university."

Hannah regrets setting her university aspirations at the same level as her predicted grades. "If I'd applied for a course that wanted slightly below my grades, I might have got in," she says. "But I was at a grammar school, and a lot of the other students were applying for Oxbridge, Warwick, UCL and places like that. So applying for anything less than the top 20 universities seemed almost like you weren't good enough. There was a lot of pressure to get into a 'good' university."

Hannah also feels let down by changing education policies. "I blame the government for saying that everyone should try to go to university and then fining universities who take on extra students," she says. "After I missed my grades, there was a lot on the news about the government wanting people to take up vocational courses and apprenticeships, or set up their own business. But , having spent two years looking at university courses, none of these really appealed to me."

Now embarking on a gap year, Hannah says she feels "gutted about missing the trips to Ikea" that her friends are all doing, but is trying to find a job and will retake an English module. "I'm planning to reapply for university in 2011," she adds, "but I'm not going to be able to apply to the kind of university that I wanted."