All news
Figures show fall in university applications
January 31, 2012
Ucas figures show a fall in university applicants, but 18-year-olds are still keen to start degree courses.
The number of UK students applying to start university this autumn has fallen by nearly nine per cent, new figures show.
Applications from students in England - where the tuition fee hike is due to come into effect - have dropped by 9.9 per cent, with some young people apparently put off by the prospect of £9,000-a-year fees.
In contrast, applications have dropped by just 1.5 per cent in Scotland - where home students do not have to pay fees - and by 1.9 per cent in Wales, where students are subsidised.
Mary Curnock Cook, chief executive of university admissions service Ucas, which published the figures, insisted that the application rate in England had dropped by just one percentage point once population changes had been taken into account.
She claimed: "Widely expressed concerns about recent changes in higher education funding arrangements having a disproportionate effect on more disadvantaged groups are not borne out by these data."
Simon Hartshorn, savings and investments manager at Family Investments, observed that the decline in demand for university places was less noticeable among 18-year-olds, who represent the biggest group of applicants.
"For parents with young children, the emphasis is now on putting money aside from an early age," he revealed.
"We estimate that parents would need to save £82 a month from the birth of their child to cover the full cost of the new tuition fees for a three-year degree course, and this does not take into account inflation or future price increases."
Life Insurance Policies
