UCU responds to UCAS figures and warns of 'inevitable scramble' for university places

The figures revealed that 209,253 people, one in three who applied, did not get a place at university. In total 688,310 people applied and 479,057 (69.6%) were accepted. In the previous year 633,592 people applied and 477,277 (75.3%) were accepted. In 2003 almost four in five applicants (78.4%) were accepted; in 2010 the percentage had dropped to just over two-thirds (69.6%).
 
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Despite the coalition's best efforts to persuade the public that its plans for university funding are based on fairness, students and their families are not stupid. The government has made it clear that the cost of a degree is set to rocket, despite pre-election promises from some ministers and all Liberal Democrat MPs that they would fight for the abolition of university fees.
 
'We now await the inevitable scramble for places as students try to secure a university place before the punitive higher fees regime is introduced in 2012. Those students will, of course, will be competing with the 200,000-plus people who missed out this summer.'