Fewer UK students gain place on degree course, Ucas

figures show
www.theguardian.com /education/2017/aug/18/fewer-uk-students-degree-courses-ucas-clearing

Richard Adams

Universities are facing a scramble to fill their undergraduate courses for the coming year, despite a rising number of
school-leavers in England accepting places after receiving their A-level results this week.

While official figures from the Ucas clearing house, released on Friday morning, show an increasing proportion of
English 18-year-olds accepting places on undergraduate courses, the overall number of acceptances to British
universities has declined after sharp falls among applicants aged 19 and older.

The increased competition among universities including making more generous offers to potential students - has
also seen fewer students needing to enter clearing, the post-A-level process that matches students who failed to
meet conditional offers with vacancies.

A slew of well-known universities - including many from the Russell Group of research intensive universities - were
offering places through clearing
the day when the process opened on Thursday.

Nervous universities await clearing as student applications fall

Read more

A survey of 148 universities carried out by the Press Association survey found that 26,654 undergraduate places
were on offer. Almost nine out of 10 of the institutions surveyed were advertising at least one course through Ucas.

Those students who have entered clearing have been snapped up more quickly than in previous year: in 2014 the
number of applicants who found a place through clearing was 5,300 on the first day but this year the number rose to
11,000.

Among the more unconventional clearing decisions came at Staffordshire University, which said it had made and
confirmed offers on Thursday to undergraduates via Snapchat.

It was a bit strange to do clearing on Snapchat but Im very happy now as Ive been worrying about it for weeks,
said Jess Warrellow, who accepted a place on Staffordshires BSc course in animal biology and conservation.

The Ucas figures show that this year 129,000 had entered clearing, a fall of nearly 13% compared with 2016
increasing the pressure on universities with courses still to fill.

The weekend following A-level results day is again likely to see high numbers accepted through clearing the
majority of applicants using clearing will be placed by the end of Monday, Ucas said.

Several universities reported seeing high levels of inquiries through their clearing call centres, including Birkbeck
College in central London, which specialises in offering part-time and evening courses.

The college said there had been a sharp rise in the volume of calls it received on Thursday, with students asking
about places on 90 courses offered, and strong interest in law, biology and geography.

We are delighted at these figures, which come on top of a significant rise in applications before clearing opened,
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said Prof Matthew Innes, Birbecks vice-master.

Birkbeck said that by lunchtime yesterday the number of calls had already exceeded the total it received during the
first day of clearing in 2016.

Birkbecks experience appears to buck the national trend, with Ucas figures showing a small decrease in applicants
accepting places on UK undergraduate courses overall, with the fall driven by a drop in the number of acceptances
by older applicants.

There was a rise in the number of students coming from the most deprived 20% of the population in England, with
the participation rate rising from 16.1% to 16.5%.

A further 390 students had taken advantage of the process known as adjustment, in which those with better than
expected A-level results can seek further offers.

The day after A-level results were published on Thursday, Ucas said 437,000 applicants had accepted places to
study at UK universities, a fall of just over 1% compared with the 443,000 who had accepted places by the same
time last year.

A-level results show rise in top grades despite tougher exams

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In England the proportion of the 18-year-old population taking up places continued to rise, to 29.5%, bettered only by
Northern Ireland with 30%. In Scotland and Wales there was less take-up, with Wales in particular seeing a 3% fall
in school-leaver applications compared with last year.

In England the 18-year-old applications were up to 183,750, a rise of 2,000 compared with the previous year. But
older age groups showed steep falls, confirming that mature students continue to be put off from higher education
since tuition fees rose to 9,000 in 2012.

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