October 2017 deadline sees UCAS applications soar
by Patrick Garratt - 1st November 2017
UCAS sees jump in number of applications for its October deadline
UCAS has released figures that show applications have increased by 7% for its 15th October 2017 cut off.
Students applying for most medicine, dentistry, and veterinary medicine/science courses and for all courses at Oxford and Cambridge Universities must submit their applications by 15th October each year.
Applications from the UK increased by 6% to 41,970. This is the highest number at this point in the application cycle since 2010. Most of the increase came from 18 year olds in England and Wales, despite a fall of 3% in the number of 18 year olds in the UK population this year.
Much of the 9% decline in applicants from the EU in the last application cycle was reversed by a 6% increase to October 15th.
Applications from outside the EU increased by 12% to 12,860.
For further information please see the UCAS statistics:
https://www.ucas.com/file/130736/download?token=EDhCX9xV
The increase in applications may have been supported by Theresa May’s pledge in September of this year to freeze tuition fees at £9,250 and increase the level of earnings at which student loans start to be paid back. A move that is slated to save graduates approximately £360 per year.
The Government has instructed a further review, which will consider other changes such as lower fees, slashing the interest rate on student loans and potentially the return of maintenance grants.
Following Labour’s 2017 election pledge to wipe out all existing student debt, pressure has mounted on the government to look into tuition fees.
The architect of tuition fees in England, Andrew Adonis, a former adviser to Tony Blair wrote, in July 2017 “In my view, fees have now become so politically diseased, they should be abolished entirely.” He went on to say “Debt levels for new graduates are now so high that the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that three-quarters of graduates will never pay it all back. The Treasury will soon realise it is sitting on a Ponzi scheme.”
See the full article here: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jul/07/tuition-fees-should-be-scrapped-says-architect-of-fees-andrew-adonis