Drop in university applications

University applications are down by 7.4% compared to last year, figures released by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Services have revealed.

The total number of applicants decreased from 583,546 in 2011 to 540,073 this year.

This comes following a surge of applications last year, and ahead of the first year of a maximum of £9,000 tuition fees.

Sally Hunt, General Secretary of the UCU, said: “Today’s figures are very worrying and once again highlight the government’s folly in raising tuition fees to as much as £9,000 a year.

“Applications in England are down over 50% more than in any other part of the UK as a result of the government making it the most expensive country in the world in which to gain a public degree.”

The fall was most severe in applicants from England, where applications decreased by a total of 9.9%. In Northern Ireland the number of applicants decreased by 4.4%, whereas Wales and Scotland saw a fall in just 1.9% and 1.4% respectively.

Outside of the UK, applications from within the EU decreased by 11.2% whereas the number of applicants from outside the EU increased by 13.7%.

Michael Farthing, the chairman of the 1994 Group of small research-intensive universities, called on the government to respond to the latest figures.

“The government has to act to make sure that this year’s fall in applications is not repeated”, he said.