Interesting news today from UCAS on the 2017-8 application cycle
UCAS has issued the following statistics on 20 September 2018:
- The percentage of the 18 year old population accepted into Higher Education through UCAS in the 2017-8 cycle is: England 34%, Wales 30%, Northern Ireland 35% and Scotland 26%.
- A record number of people (60,100) has been accepted through Clearing, 24% of whom applied directly to Clearing (i.e., after the beginning of July 2018) rather than through the main application scheme.
- The total number of UK applicants now placed is 426,730, down 3 per cent on 2017, although this comes alongside a 2.5 per cent drop in the number of 18 year olds in the UK population.
- 495,410 people are now placed in full-time (undergraduate?) UK Higher Education through UCAS so far, a decrease of 2 per cent on the same point last year.
My concern is that the many people accepted through Clearing might not have done sufficient research on their degree programme and university before accepting their place.
Incidentally, today is the last day for new applications to be accepted in the 2017-8 cycle, but existing applicants may still get places through Clearing until 23 October. (PRo)