Email
Record numbers of women and students from deprived areas are winning places at British universities, according to official figures published a day after A-level results.
For the first time, the total number of people going to university could top half a million, data from Ucas – the clearing house that administers undergraduate admissions – shows.
Initial figures reveal that nearly 400,000 undergraduates already have their places confirmed, up 3% on last year, and 352,590 have won a place on their first choice of course, up 2% on 2013.
The rise comes despite a shrinking number of 18-year-olds in the UK population as a whole and a slight decline in the pass rate – the first for 32 years. Some 98% of exams scored at least an E this summer, down by 0.1 percentage points.
Just over one in four (26%) of exams were awarded an A* or A grade, down 0.3 percentage points on last summer.
Students living in areas with historically low rates of entry to higher education – which frequently coincide with low income – have been applying to higher education in greater numbers this year, according to the figures.
The areas of lowest participation have seen an 8% increase this year compared with last, while next-lowest areas have seen a 4% rise. The net effect is that around 6,500 more students from those areas will be going to university compared with four years ago – despite the near-trebling of tuition fees in England over that period.
In contrast, there has been a slight dip in the number of places filled by students from better-off regions of the UK, down by 1% this year. The combined effect means that students from better-off areas are still two-and-a-half times more likely to attend university than those from the lowest participation areas – but a steep improvement from 2012, when they were more than three times more likely.
Students from areas of Wales with the lowest historical rates of higher education have been accepted to university in greater numbers than elsewhere, with a 14% increase this year. In 2010, just 800 students from areas such as Neath Port Talbot or Caerphilly attended university, while this year the number will pass 1,000 for the first time.
Wales also saw an increase in the number of students winning places at Oxford University for the first time in four years, with 86 offers. Huw Lewis, the education minister, attributed part of the improvement to the efforts of Paul Murphy, the Labour MP for Torfaen, as "Oxbridge ambassador" for Wales.
The gender gap in enrolment continues to widen, despite men's A-level results improving.
Last year, the difference in the participation rate of 18-year-old women was 7.6 percentage points higher than that of 18-year-old men. This year the gap has widened to 7.8 percentage points, with 13 women going on to university for every 10 men: 111,000 compared with fewer than 87,000 18-year-old men.
The clearing process – which matches candidates without a university offer with institutions that have spaces on degree courses – appears to have gone smoothly, thanks to changes in government policy that allow universities to enrol more undergraduates.
A snapshot survey of the Ucas clearing website taken on Thursday by the Press Association discovered that 19 members of the Russell Group of leading research universities were collectively advertising spaces for UK students on about 3,600 courses.
Russell Group director general Wendy Piatt said: "Some Russell Group universities may have more places to offer through clearing to well-qualified students who have narrowly missed out on their first choice."
;