New figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, which co-ordinates applications for tertiary education in Britain, reveal that the number of British-born university applicants for the academic year starting next September, when the Conservative-led coalition’s decision to raise tuition fees to up to £9,000 a year kick in, has plummeted by 12 per cent.
Ucas statistics show that 52,321 young men and women have applied compared with 59,413 at this time last year.
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said the figures show that the Government’s decision to almost treble tuition fees has been a disaster. She said: “It is clearly having a serious impact on the choices young people make.”
Ucas has proposed that students will in future apply for university only after getting their A-level results. At the moment most apply while still at school, in Year 13, or what used to be the Upper Sixth, and are offered a conditional place – that is, on condition they achieve a particular set of grades.
When school students fall short they have to apply for another course or another university through the annual mad scramble of clearing.
The changes, set to be introduced in 2016, have been recommended in the first major review of university admissions for 50 years.
Students would sit their A-level exams in early May, with the results being published before the end of the summer term in July. Candidates would apply to universities in the third week of July and accept offers by the third week of September.
Ucas said the current system is “complex” and the clearing process “inefficient, stressful and confusing”. David Willetts, the Universities Minister, is understood to back the new proposals.
Sally Hunt said: “The old one size fits all approach of university applications is outdated and allows people who are most adept at navigating the system, rather than the brightest and the best, to profit most when it comes to applying to university.
