By Ashleigh Wight
Kingston University and UCAS have revealed that the number of early applicants for next year has fallen by 10 per cent.
KU applications for 2012 entry up until November 15 were down by over 400 from 4,110 to 3,682 compared with last year.
Avoiding the fee increase
A Kingston University spokeswoman said: “As a result of the fee increase, universities are expecting students to take more time to make their choices and possibly to delay applying until closer to the January deadline.
“Last year was an exceptionally high year for applications as, to avoid the fees increase, many people applied who might otherwise have deferred, or not applied at all,” they added.
According to data published by UCAS in October, students who wished to apply early and applications for courses with early deadlines across the UK, such as medicine, dentistry, veterinary science and Oxford and Cambridge courses, are down nine per cent from last years’ figures.
Sceptical about the UCAS figures
Universities UK, the representative organisation for universities across the UK, remain sceptical about the new UCAS figures not showing a true representation of applicant numbers as they do not take to account the number of applicants for part-time and postgraduate courses.
“It can be misleading to make direct comparisons so early in the applications cycle,” the university spokeswoman said. “As this year’s November figures to date show, the application rate has increased considerably since earlier in the cycle. On the 14th November alone, the University received 320 applications from UCAS.”
The full impact of the tuition fee rise on university applications will not be made apparent until the deadline on January 15 2012.
Grace Henley 
Josh Smith 
Ella Rebbitt