A website used by A-level students to check on university places has been put back online after it was shut due to unprecedented demand.
Tens of thousands of youngsters were left in limbo when the Ucas Track service was shut at 8.40am on Thursday after traffic to the site quadrupled.
In a statement, Ucas insisted that students' ability to choose a clearing place will not have been affected by the closure.
"Ucas Track services have now been restored after a period of intermittent disruption for some users," the statement said.
"The ability to choose a clearing place has not been impacted, and this function will open late afternoon as planned."
At one stage, the Ucas website was receiving 450 hits per second - nearly four times as many as last year.
Ucas chief executive Mary Curnock Cook said this was higher than expected.
She said that some people would have faced "intermittent" disruption to the Track service, but insisted all of the other services were working normally.
"The critical thing is the clearing vacancy search. That service has been running 100%.
"Obviously, for Ucas, any service failure is something that we don't want to happen. We are here to try and provide advice and services to our applicants and to our member universities and colleges, so any disruption in service is not how we would wish it to be."
