How many episodes this season?

I was just wondering - the storylines seem to be quite convoluted - although it is getting "interesting" no, and there seems to be quite a way to go, but British dramas never really run seasons with episodes into the double figures. Does it actually say anywhere how many episodes this season is going to have? And whether ITV is making another season? Are they going to be able to tie everything up: ie Rosalinds wedding, this Avalon thing, what the Americans want to do to the students, Charotte's dad's murder as well as all the usual romantic entanglements.