UK universities see a 15 per cent slump in applicants

Universities face a record 15.1 per cent slump in applications as school leavers shun university due to the tuition fee increase.

A rising number of students are being deterred from University as the government's new tuition fees start next year. Ucas statistics have shown a decrease in applications which will come as a blow to the coalition government.

Universities Minister David Willets has said it is too early in the applications cycle to make predictions on demand. Yet experts believe the drop in applications for next years degree courses is one of the biggest.

The figures show a drop of 23,759 applications to 133,357 compared to the same point last year. This means that universities are going to become over reliant on overseas students who pay the full cost of courses, as much as £26,000 a year. However the number of applicants from outside the EU has risen by 11.8 per cent amid extensive overseas recruitment drives.

Part of the decrease in applications is the amount of students that cancelled gap years to beat the tuition fee increase. Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: ‘I think this is the highest drop outside of the two World Wars, when some universities almost became bankrupt due to falling applications. They were rescued by State support.

‘In the 1980s, when the number of 18-year-olds dropped by a third, the shortfall in applications was made good by mature students and part-time students. It will be the less popular universities that will struggle. Students will be questioning whether they would be getting sufficient value from £9,000-a-year from those universities.’

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said the figures were worrying, adding: ‘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.’

With the economy still in uncertain times many companies are freezing their recruitment again which means that the reduction in applications to university is probably a good thing for current graduates searching for graduate jobs.

Source: Pareto.co.uk, Wednesday 14th December 2011