UK News: UCAS Applications See Majority of Students Opting for Elite Universities

In an amazing win for the elite universities in the UK, data released recently revealed that they received the record share of all UCAS applications this year. For the uninitiated, one can learn more about UCAS here. The final figures shared by UCAS after the June 30 deadline showed that the total number of applications from 18-year-olds aspiring to pursue a university education had taken a hit. But the number still remains the second-highest amount the service has seen since its inception. The highest number of applicants still paved the way last year, with about 3,200 UCAS applications. 

319,570 applicants applied this year in this recent UK student news, a 2% dip from the last year but a hefty number nonetheless. According to numbers from the 2022 UCAS news, the students had previously tended to apply more to the relatively lower-rank universities due to the largely reduced cut-offs and acceptance rates of the elite universities. However, the trend has reversed this time around. According to the numbers from this UCAS news, 40.8% of the applicants this year around applied to the higher ranking elite universities, despite acceptance rate woes. “This suggests young applicants have not so far recalibrated their ambition after the cutbacks in UK intakes at those universities last year”, commented Mark Corver, a dataHE co-founder. On the flip side, the number of students applying to lower-rated universities has now dipped by 4%, the largest the drop has been in six years. 

The topic of contention in UK news is that the Brits are now facing an issue on two fronts despite the seemingly higher amount of applicants:

The first issue is that the number of applications from 18-year-olds dipped by a record amount, and the second is that they also dipped from older applicants. Mark describes this as an issue because the demand dynamics in the UK are “notably weak”. “With application rates falling again over most older age groups, the long journey that lower-tariff providers have been on in reorienting away from this important market for them does not seem to be over yet” This issue does not just persist with the age groups. The UCAS applications saw a decrease in female applicants by 5%. 

Usually, the opportunity cost of applying to universities is low if employment prospects are weak. This phenomenon is quite the opposite now as, despite the high unemployment rates, a record number of applicants are still applying for their spots in the top rank of UK universities. “This reflects increased confidence in offer-making by institutions as school exam grading returns to the pre-pandemic profile”, noted Tim Bradshaw, CEO of Russell Group.

According to UCAS news, Computing saw the biggest increase in the number of UCAS applicants, with 10%. Additionally, there was a notable fall in applications for general studies (12%), education and teaching (10%), and agriculture and food-related studies (10%). This comes at the behest of the conversation around AI and the resurgence of interest in computer science related fields.