Record numbers of school-leavers seek UK university places

Record numbers of school-leavers are seeking places at UK universities for this autumn, but the overall number of applications has dipped slightly.

Admissions service Ucas said 320,420 UK 18-year-olds had applied for higher education courses by its main January deadline, up 5 per cent year on year.

However, overall undergraduate applications fell by 1 per cent, to 610,720, mainly driven by a 17 per cent drop in applications from mature students. This is compared with 2021 when, at the height of the pandemic, applications from would-be students aged 21 or over leapt 24 per cent.

The number of international applicants at the January deadline held steady compared with last year, at 111,410. This masked a continuing decline in applications from European Union students, following the post-Brexit removal of their access to domestic fee levels and student finance: this year just 20,820 have applied, down 19 per cent on last year and 51 per cent on the year before that.

However, these declines were offset by increases in applications from further afield. The number of applications from China leapt 12 per cent, to 28,930, while India was up 11 per cent to 8,660. The number of applications from Nigeria – a key emerging market – was up 47 per cent, to 2,380.

Clare Marchant, Ucas’ chief executive, said “robust demand” from China and India showed “the enduring appeal of our world-class universities”.

Ucas also said that a record 28 per cent of young people from the most under-represented areas of the UK had applied to higher education this year, up from 17.8 per cent in 2013.

There were record overall application rates among 18-year-olds in three of the four UK nations: 44.1 per cent in England, 37.5 per cent in Wales and 52.6 per cent in Northern Ireland. Scotland’s figure of 35.4 per cent was the second highest ever.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com