Research reveals £9,000-a-year tuition fees would have deterred many current undergraduates from going to university
The rapid increase in the number of young people applying to UK universities over the last five years appears to be tailing off, statistics show. The figures come as research reveals that half of today's undergraduates would not have gone to university if they had been forced to pay £9,000-a-year tuition fees.
Figures published by the University and College Admissions Service (Ucas) on Tuesday show that the number of applicants – while at a record high – has only increased by 2.1% in the last year.
Between 2007 and 2008, the number of applicants grew by 8.3%. A year later, this figure climbed to 8.8%. Between 2009 and 2010, the growth was 15.3%.
Many expected a rush to get on to courses before tuition fees rise to up to £9,000 a year in autumn 2012. Almost three-quarters of universities in England intend to almost treble their fees and charge the maximum.
This year's smaller-than-usual increase in applicant numbers may indicate that young people are starting to look for alternatives to university amid fears over the rising cost of degrees.
Last year's spike in applicants is thought to have been triggered in part by the recession and fears over tuition fee rises. More people enrol on degree courses in times of economic hardship.
This year's Ucas figures show more teenagers are applying for vocational degrees, such as engineering and nursing, while fewer are opting for languages, arts and humanities courses. Some 633,811 applicants hope to start full-time undergraduate degree courses this autumn, the Ucas figures reveal.
There are likely to be about 490,000 places available, which will leave more than 100,000 would-be students rejected by all the universities to which they have applied.
Ministers allowed universities to offer an extra 10,000 university places for last year and this. But in 2012, these places will not be available.
Meanwhile, just over half of 12,658 undergraduates have told pollsters they would not have gone to university if tuition fees had been £9,000 a year. Market research firm High Fliers Research questioned students from 24 universities, all of which intend to charge £9,000 from autumn 2012. found that women, those from the north of England and those who achieved three B grades at A-level, or less, were most likely to be deterred by maximum tuition fees. Those studying arts, humanities and languages were more put off than those taking other subjects.
More than three-fifths of students quizzed at Loughborough, Sheffield, Lancaster, Liverpool and Reading universities said they would not have started their degree if they had had to pay the maximum fee. Students at Oxford and Cambridge universities were the least concerned. Some 25% and 27% respectively said they would be put off by fees of £9,000.
Students who had gone to state schools were more likely to be deterred by the higher fees. Some 59% of those who had attended comprehensives said £9,000 fees would have put them off university, compared with 39% of those who were educated privately.
The initial charge of tuition fees is borne by the government, which pays the fee for each student in the form of a loan before recovering its money once the student has graduated and finds a job that pays more than £21,000 a year.
This year's Ucas figures also show that degrees in history, philosophy and classics are less popular than they were last year, while places on physics, maths and engineering courses are more sought after.
Applications for history and for philosophy are down by 1.5%, while those for linguistics or classics have fallen by 4.2%. Applications for European languages have dropped 0.8%, but non-European languages have increased by the same amount.
However, applications for maths and computer science have risen 6.5%, while for engineering they have climbed by 4.7%. Nursing has grown by 14%.
The proportion of university hopefuls who are older than 18 when they apply continues to rise. The proportion of 19-year-olds who applied this year has grown by 6.2%, while those aged 24 has grown by 4%.
Check how much universities want to charge in tuition fees here