Number of British university applicants down 13 %

The total applications for all British university courses starting next October has fallen 13 percent, according to the latest statistics from British university admissions service. The figures, published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas), showed that the number of students who have so far applied for courses at British universities is 158,387, down by 23,427 from the same time last year. Figures also showed that British-born applicants are down by 15 percent, while non-EU applicants are up by 11.8 percent. Meanwhile, the number of applicants aged between 25 and 39 has fallen by more than 20 percent, while the figure for those aged 40 and above is down more than 25 percent. It is since autumn 2012 that tuition fees will rise from 3,000 pounds (4,650 U.S. dollars) to 9,000 pounds (13,950 dollars) a year, but Ucas says it is too early to say whether this will affect the final demand for admissions since there may be a late surge near the January 15 deadline. Mary Curnock Cook, the chief executive of Ucas, said she expected "some depression of demand" because of a decline in the young population, and it was "much too early to predict any effects from changes in tuition fees." Courses which have an October deadline: medicine, dentistry and veterinary science, plus Oxford and Cambridge, showed a reduction of less than 1 percent.