University applications fall by 9 per cent
As the number of young people applying for university falls by nearly 9 per cent, an A-level student tells Channel 4 News he is reconsidering his future because of looming fees of up to £9,000.
At 9.9 per cent, the drop was highest in England where tuition fees are set to triple to £9,000 starting this September. In Scotland, where national students pay no higher education fees, the drop in admissions was 1.5 per cent.
The figures from Ucas show that 462,507 people applied for courses beginning in September by the January 15 deadline – a drop of 8.7 per cent for UK applicants.
When overseas applications are taken into account, the overall figures are down by 7.4 per cent. While the number of applicants from EU countries fell by 11.2 per cent, the total number of overseas applicants from outside the EU rose by 13.7 per cent.
A-level student Rhammel Afflick told Channel 4 News the new fee levels have changed his outlook “a lot”.
“It’s suddenly a question of whether it’s worth it, you start to look at the other options like apprenticeships,” he said.
“It’s definitely had an effect on my view of whether university is worth the trouble, espeically when you hear stories about people going through university and still not actually getting jobs.”
Despite the drop, Universities UK, the group representing vice chancellors, said the fall is “far less dramatic” than predicted.
Ucas Chief Executive Mary Curnock Cook said that population decline was partly to blame and added that the fall was bigger among applicants from wealthier backgrounds.
“Our analysis shows that decreases in demand are slightly larger in more advantaged groups than in the disadvantaged groups,” she said.
“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.”
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Government ‘taking a risk’
Pam Tatlow, chief executive of the university think tank million+ said: “The government was always taking a risk by expecting students to take out fee loans of up to £9,000 per year to make up for cuts in public funding.”
Today’s statistics reflect applications before the first major deadline – 15 January, but would-be students can apply later in the year.
Ms Tatlow added that the full impact will not be known until later in the year when all enrolments are announced: “If this shows a decline in students from lower-income backgrounds this will be a real blow to the government’s commitment to social mobility.”
Martin Lewis, of Money Saving Expert and head of the independent taskforce on student finance information, said there is “no doubt” that higher fees put some students off.
“The worst-case scenario is that it is those from non-traditional university backgrounds – wrongly panicked into feeling they can’t afford fees or scared of being saddled with huge unmanageable debt,” he said.
“The best-case scenario is that this is a legitimate call from those who have investigated the cost, the value, and evaluated university is now not for them. I suspect it’s a mix.”