The increase in tuition fees of up to £9000 per year is being blamed for a fall in university applications of almost 13 per cent.
Figures released today by UCAS show that the number of applications submitted last year for courses starting in 2011 was 181,814, compared with 158,387 applications for 2012.
The number of applications by UK domiciled students fell by 15.1 per cent, and similarly applications from EU students fell by 13.1 per cent. However, the number of applications submitted by non-EU students rose by 11.8 per cent.
In the UK the regions with the largest fall in applications were the north east (21.4 per cent), East Midlands (20.1 per cent) and the south west (17.3 per cent).
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said that the increase in tuition fees of up to £9000 a year were partly to blame for the fall in university applications:
“Today’s preliminary figures are very worrying. We believe putting financial barriers in front of young people who have been told their entire lives to aim for university is nothing more than a policy of penalising ambition.”
Some universities are still adjusting their fee rates causing further confusion for applicants. On November 7 the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) announced that 27 universities applied to reduce their fees to £7500 or less.
This was to take advantage of 20,000 extra places created by OFFA’s new ‘core and margin’ system whereby extra places were granted where fees were waived or set below £7500. The decision will not be announced to universities until November 30.
“We are still waiting for some universities to readjust the cost of their degrees, which adds even more confusion to the situation. Students should be looking to study the courses most suited to their talents, not searching for something in their price range, and universities should not be forced into cutting prices to try and fill places,” Sally Hunt said.
Commenting on the latest university application statistics, UCAS chief executive Mary Cook said that the decline in university applications was partly due to a fall in the young population and that “it is much too early to predict any effects from changes in tuition fees.”
