Competition for places at Britain’s top universities is growing fiercer, as falling per-student funding forces institutions to reduce their offers despite rising demand, according to higher education analysts.
The number of 18-year-olds from England, Wales and Northern Ireland admitted to high-ranking institutions fell by 12.2 per cent this year, according to an analysis by higher education consultancy DataHE.
As freshers prepare to start term this week, analysts suggest that securing a place at the top tier institutions is getting tougher due to undergraduate funding falling in real-terms because of inflation, dissuading universities from expanding course numbers.
Mark Corver, director of DataHE and a former head of data at UCAS, the higher education body, said that rising demand for places had “collided with a reality of constrained supply at mostly higher tariff universities”.
The DataHE analysis, shared with the Financial Times, showed that two weeks after results day higher-tariff institutions had recruited 11,430 fewer 18-year-olds from England, Wales and Northern Ireland this year compared with 2021.
Total applications to this group — a rough indicator of appetite as students can apply to up to five choices — increased from 545,000 to 573,000.
The fall in admissions is partly because of the most competitive universities scaling back after a sharp increase in intake last year, when exams were cancelled because of the pandemic, resulting in record grade inflation and more students meeting their entry offers.
Before that, the number attending university had rapidly expanded for a decade. On results day last month, UCAS said that 425,830 students were accepted into university or college, the second highest on record and an increase of 16,870 compared to 2019.
However Corver said the fall in top tier admissions between 2021 and 2022 showed that universities were not expanding to meet demand because of financial pressures.
In August, inflation dipped to 9.9 per cent, and is expected to rise into the low double digits this autumn. However, tuition fees have only risen by £250 since being capped at £9,000 a year since 2012.
“They’ve got to balance the books,” he said. “That’s led to tactical decisions on admissions to go for the higher fee students, and a crimping of supply for home places at the universities people most want to go to.”
The Russell Group, which represents higher-ranking institutions, said universities were spending £1,750 more on each home undergraduate per year than they made in tuition fees and grant funding, and predicted the deficit would increase to £4,000 by 2024-25.
Universities UK, which represents the sector, has denied that places are being restricted. It highlighted that enrolment numbers have been growing in the long term and only dropped back compared to last year.
Every since the Coalition government of 2010, the effort has been to [cut university funding](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12762556) (because its not like they are a vital social good or anything), shift that burden to students (who have no negotiating power), stiff said students with outrageous interest rates so that they never pay off their loans….
Don’t worry, the usual spaces for the sons and daughters of Tory MPs and Lords and the Royal Family will still be guaranteed. It’s just the plebs that’ll miss out.
They really just need to scrap the loan and tuition fee system and have a graduate tax.
Is anyone surprised? They’ve raised fees 3% in a decade, that’s going to be a huge funding cut in real terms.
If you’re so bothered about university being expensive, go and do something else then.
Fees would need to be closer to £12k than the £9250 they currently are if we wanted to keep fees in line with inflation. The £9k fees were extortionate enough as it was, you would find even fewer would go if fees went up to £12k per year and that would only exacerbate the issue further. This would mean even more recruitment for overseas students to plug the funding gap. Universities are expensive to run and they need to get funding from somewhere if they are expected to run as they have the last few decades. Realistically, it should come from the government but that is not going to happen under the Tories. This just means students will be harmed as universities will only be able to get that funding from them in the meantime.
University, pah! I didn’t bother with university, and now I own a mock tudor four bedroom detached house in Pinner.
Haven’t universities just got a massive bonus? All the old EU students now have to pay international rates instead of local. That caused their numbers to drop significantly, but all their spots were taken up by full fee paying Indians/Africans/Americans etc. Universities should be swimming in foreign cash, enough to subsidise domestic students.
9 comments
Funding crunch to limit top UK universities places
Admissions to high-ranking institutions fall by 11.3% as funding pressures take toll, say analysts
The Russell Group, which represents higher-ranking institutions including Cambridge, said universities were spending £1,750 more on each home undergraduate per year than they made in tuition fees © Brian Harris/Alamy
Bethan Staton: in London
Competition for places at Britain’s top universities is growing fiercer, as falling per-student funding forces institutions to reduce their offers despite rising demand, according to higher education analysts.
The number of 18-year-olds from England, Wales and Northern Ireland admitted to high-ranking institutions fell by 12.2 per cent this year, according to an analysis by higher education consultancy DataHE.
As freshers prepare to start term this week, analysts suggest that securing a place at the top tier institutions is getting tougher due to undergraduate funding falling in real-terms because of inflation, dissuading universities from expanding course numbers.
Mark Corver, director of DataHE and a former head of data at UCAS, the higher education body, said that rising demand for places had “collided with a reality of constrained supply at mostly higher tariff universities”.
The DataHE analysis, shared with the Financial Times, showed that two weeks after results day higher-tariff institutions had recruited 11,430 fewer 18-year-olds from England, Wales and Northern Ireland this year compared with 2021.
Total applications to this group — a rough indicator of appetite as students can apply to up to five choices — increased from 545,000 to 573,000.
The fall in admissions is partly because of the most competitive universities scaling back after a sharp increase in intake last year, when exams were cancelled because of the pandemic, resulting in record grade inflation and more students meeting their entry offers.
Before that, the number attending university had rapidly expanded for a decade. On results day last month, UCAS said that 425,830 students were accepted into university or college, the second highest on record and an increase of 16,870 compared to 2019.
However Corver said the fall in top tier admissions between 2021 and 2022 showed that universities were not expanding to meet demand because of financial pressures.
In August, inflation dipped to 9.9 per cent, and is expected to rise into the low double digits this autumn. However, tuition fees have only risen by £250 since being capped at £9,000 a year since 2012.
“They’ve got to balance the books,” he said. “That’s led to tactical decisions on admissions to go for the higher fee students, and a crimping of supply for home places at the universities people most want to go to.”
The Russell Group, which represents higher-ranking institutions, said universities were spending £1,750 more on each home undergraduate per year than they made in tuition fees and grant funding, and predicted the deficit would increase to £4,000 by 2024-25.
Universities UK, which represents the sector, has denied that places are being restricted. It highlighted that enrolment numbers have been growing in the long term and only dropped back compared to last year.
Every since the Coalition government of 2010, the effort has been to [cut university funding](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12762556) (because its not like they are a vital social good or anything), shift that burden to students (who have no negotiating power), stiff said students with outrageous interest rates so that they never pay off their loans….
…. and then use the funding savings to enact the main aim of the exercise – to [deliver corporate tax cuts](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/mar/20/budget-2013-corporation-tax-cut) that benefit the very very rich.
Don’t worry, the usual spaces for the sons and daughters of Tory MPs and Lords and the Royal Family will still be guaranteed. It’s just the plebs that’ll miss out.
They really just need to scrap the loan and tuition fee system and have a graduate tax.
Is anyone surprised? They’ve raised fees 3% in a decade, that’s going to be a huge funding cut in real terms.
If you’re so bothered about university being expensive, go and do something else then.
Fees would need to be closer to £12k than the £9250 they currently are if we wanted to keep fees in line with inflation. The £9k fees were extortionate enough as it was, you would find even fewer would go if fees went up to £12k per year and that would only exacerbate the issue further. This would mean even more recruitment for overseas students to plug the funding gap. Universities are expensive to run and they need to get funding from somewhere if they are expected to run as they have the last few decades. Realistically, it should come from the government but that is not going to happen under the Tories. This just means students will be harmed as universities will only be able to get that funding from them in the meantime.
University, pah! I didn’t bother with university, and now I own a mock tudor four bedroom detached house in Pinner.
Haven’t universities just got a massive bonus? All the old EU students now have to pay international rates instead of local. That caused their numbers to drop significantly, but all their spots were taken up by full fee paying Indians/Africans/Americans etc. Universities should be swimming in foreign cash, enough to subsidise domestic students.