UK Universities recruit 54,000 fewer students

Chris Cook:

UK universities recruited 54,000 fewer UK and EU students this academic year following the rise in tuition fees, according to the university admissions service, with less prestigious universities suffering the worst of the drop.

The 11 per cent decline in student numbers implies that universities, which had incomes of £27bn last year, could have lost out on £400m of tuition fees, had they been able to sustain the same recruitment levels as last year.

Lifting the fee cap in England from £3,375 to £9,000 was one of the coalition's most controversial policies, but concerns that poorer students would be particularly deterred have not been realised.

The new figures, released by Ucas, the university courses manager, reveal that the number of UK students from the fifth of households least likely to go to university fell by only 2.4 per cent - roughly in line with demographic change.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at December 14, 2012 1:21 AM
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