FEW of the sixth formers picking up their results yesterday at Oxfordshire schools were planning a gap year break, because of fears over the 2012 tuition fee hike.

More students are scrambling for university places to avoid fees of up to £9,000 a year when the cap is lifted next year.

As they collected their results yesterday, a record 185,684 pupils who failed to meet their required grades were eligible for clearing, compared to 180,632 last year.

At Wood Green School, Witney, 18-year-old Chloe Lucas said she now planned to take time out only after finishing her theology and religion course at Birmingham University.

She said: “I will be going to university in September mainly because of the tuition fees.

“I do not want to be in that much debt after I finish my university course.”

And pal Stephanie Prew, 18, who is heading to Oxford Brookes to study biomedical science, added: “I am starting in September because I just would not be able to afford it next year.”

But at The Cherwell School, Helen Waters, who got four A* grades, said: “I am terrified about the tuition fees but I have wanted to go on a gap year since I was tiny and nothing is going to stop me.”

There was more chaos yesterday when the national computer system, through which candidates could find out whether they had secured their university places, crashed in the morning.

Tens of thousands of youngsters were left in limbo when the Ucas Track service was shut at 8.40am after traffic to the site quadrupled. It went back online at midday.