The number of UK-born students applying to university for autumn 2012 has dropped by 7.6% according to official figures published today.
With students face soaring fees of up to £9,000 a year, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) has reported a drop of more than 23,000 applying from within the UK compared with the same time last year. Jessica Shepherd writes today:
The fall in the number of UK-born students applying may reflect that significant numbers have been deterred by the fee hike, but they are also due to a glut of applications in 2010 in anticipation of the fees rise. Demographic factors could also be behind the slump in applications. The number of 18-year-olds in the UK is projected to decline over the rest of the decade by 11%.
Total applications have also decreased with 321,908 students applying for 2012 compared to 344,064 for 2011 - a drop of 6.4% on the year. The latest figures showing a drop in applicants follows on from the last statistics published in October 2011 which showed a 12% decrease on the year. However, applications from outside the EU have risen by 13.3% despite applications within the UK and EU countries dropping. But what does the overall decrease tell us? Jessica Shepherd explains:
The number of applicants overall has fallen by 6.4%. This is a more marked fall than last time tuition fees trebled, in 2006. Then, when fees rose from £1,000 to £3,000, applications fell by 4.5% for applicants from within and outside the UK. The following year, applicants rebounded by 7.1% and after that, in 2009, applications were up by 10%.
Of the applications within the UK, the number of those applying from England has marked the biggest slump - down 8.3% - followed by Northern Ireland with -5.7%. Scotland and Wales saw much smaller decreases.
The Ucas figures also break down applications by region. This shows south-west England reported the biggest drop in applicants (down by 11.2%) followed closely by the East Midlands.
According to the official figures, oversea applications are on the rise. Students applying from Hong Kong rose by 30.5% and those applying from Australasia jumped up by 21.7%.
The data shows a breakdown of applicants by subject choice also. Non-European languages and related has seen the biggest decrease but it's not all bad news as applications to study subjects allied to medicine has risen by 1.3%.
University applications to study this autumn close on 15 January and Ucas is set to release final figures on 30 January. The figures released today include applications to all courses up to 19 December 2011.
What can you do with this data?
Data summary
Download the data
• DATA: download the full datasheet
More data
Data journalism and data visualisations from the Guardian
World government data
• Search the world's government data with our gateway
Development and aid data
• Search the world's global development data with our gateway
Can you do something with this data?
• Flickr Please post your visualisations and mash-ups on our Flickr group
• Contact us at data@guardian.co.uk
• Get the A-Z of data
• More at the Datastore directory
• Follow us on Twitter