Fewer students are applying to university with the higher tuition fee starting in 2012

University applications down by 15% from UK students with 20,000 fewer applications than last year

New figures from the University and Colleges Admissions Service have shown a stark decline in applications to UK universities with an overall fall of by 15%. There have been over 20,000 fewer applications with 133,357 applications this year compared to 157,116.  Scotland appears to have taken the biggest brunt of this with a 17% decline but there has been a fall in every region in the UK; England 15.2%, Wales 10.3 and Northern Ireland 15.2%.

Many will see this as a sign that the Government's decision to hike university fees up to £9,000 has back fired with many now deciding against going to university and graduating, Sally Hunt, the general sectary of the lectures Universities and College Union had this to say "We believe putting financial barriers in front of young people who have been told their entire lives to aim for university is nothing more than a policy of penalising ambition".

However others have come out to say that the decline cannot totally be blamed on the rising fees as there is an overall decline in the youth population in the UK with less 18 year olds leaving this year for university and as Dr. Wendy Paitt, director of the Russell Group points out there has also been a fall in Scottish Students Applying to Scottish Universities where they pay no fees.

UCAS' own website states that the deadline for many universities courses is January the 15th 2012 so perhaps it is too early to judge what impact the fee rise has had on universities applications, one thing is for sure though if there is a drop in applications and thus a drop in graduates leaving university it is not the sign of a healthy recovering economy.

[Source]