Universities face sharp drop in mature students

University applications for mature students have fallen sharply but those for school-leavers are down only slightly, according to figures released today.

Students applying for this autumn will be the first to pay the pounds 1,000- a-year tuition fee introduced by the Government.

The drop in figures for mature students comes at a time when ministers are trying to promote lifelong learning.

Overall, the drop in university applications by the 15 December closing date was 4.2 per cent, less than the provisional figure of 6 per cent released originally by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.

A rush of late applications postmarked just before the deadline has led to the revised figure.

However, there is a big difference in application trends between school- leavers, down 1.9 per cent, and mature students down 13.4 per cent for those aged between 21-24 and 18.3 per cent for those over 25.

Tony Higgins, UCAS's chief executive, said: "We rather suspect that young people are not being put off so much as was thought by the prospect of fees.

"They clearly see 40 years of earning power ahead of them and every prospect with a degree of a good job. Potential mature students on the other hand may include people out of work whose employment prospects may not be so good even after qualification. Others are likely to have bigger financial commitments already."

Diana Warwick, chief executive of the university vice-chancellors' committee, said the decrease should be set against the 26,000 extra students admitted above universities' planned targets last autumn.

The 15 December date is not a final closing date but universities do no guarantee to consider applications received after that date.

The biggest falls in applications are for medicine, social work and institutional management while there are increases for marketing, market research, computer science and design studies.

Applications for primary teacher-training have declined dramatically, down by 15.4 per cent. First degree teacher training courses will not, unlike one-year postgraduate courses, be exempt from fees.

There is a 30.7 per cent drop in applications from the Republic of Ireland which abolished tuition fees last year.

A Department for Education spokeswoman said that it was likely that there were more applications to come from mature students who traditionally applied later than school-leavers. Would-be teachers, she suggested, might be deciding to switch from undergraduate to postgraduate courses.