High Peak Liberal DemocratsCommenting on today's UCAS applications figures, which show that more than 250,000 18-year-olds have already applied to university, a higher proportion of English school leavers than ever before, barring last year, and that applications from people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds remain strong, Advocate for Access to Education and Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader, Simon Hughes said:
"Today's figures show that on the whole young people have not been put off by the changes in the student finance system.
"This is due in no small part to the serious effort put in by the Coalition Government and many others in making sure that each young person and their parents knew all the facts about funding higher education.
"In particular, many families clearly now understand that all graduates will pay less each month towards the cost of their university education than they did before.
"There has been a larger drop in the number of older students applying to university. The Government will have to take a serious look at why this has happened, particularly as mature students for the first time also do not have to pay for their university education in advance.
"However, because mature students have more flexibility in when they apply, there are still good opportunities for people looking to start university this year to put in an application."
The UK 18-year-old population peaked in 2009. It has fallen by 9,000 this year so we cannot expect continued growth in actual applications. However the application rate which allows for changes in the population has held up.
The 19-year-old cohort is smaller this year and there were an additional 14,000 18-year-old accepted applicants for entry in 2011 compared to the previous two years. If these 14,000 had not got a place in 2011 and applied in 2012 as 19-year-olds, it would account for nearly all of the reduction.
The drop in mature applicants could be down to greater reluctance to study full-time, given the current position of the job market.
Part-time students, who are not included in today's figures, will be able to access tuition loans from the Government for the first time on the same terms as full-time students. This offers a good alternative for mature students who wish to stay in work.
During periods of reform, it is expected year on year trends will fluctuate. We saw this in 2006 (when a 2.9% reduction in English domiciled applicants was followed by a 6% increase the following year). Similarly, both 2011 and 2012 will be unusual years. 2011 figures show a significant increase in accepted applicants - which would naturally mean a smaller pool of potential applicants in 2012 than would otherwise have been the case.
New students will not pay upfront, there will be more financial support for those from poorer families and everyone will make lower monthly loan repayments than they do now once they are in well paid jobs.
Universities charging more than £6,000 for tuition will have to do more do to attract students from under-represented and disadvantaged groups. Universities plan to spend over £620m - 50 per cent more than they do already - on increasing the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds from 2015/16.
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