Education: Hope for students in search of degree courses

Nationally around one in five university places are still available, with the potential of more being created if higher education providers decide to recruit more top achievers.

A major shake up of the higher education system has allowed universities to take on an unlimited number of AAB students this year but with fewer places for candidates with lower grades.

Leeds, Sheffield and York, all members of the elite Russell Group of universities, had scores of places in a range of courses yesterday afternoon for students with top grades, according to their websites.

Elsewhere Bradford, Hull, Sheffield Hallam and Leeds Metropolitan Universities websites all showed a range of vacancies while a spokesman for Huddersfield University said it had places available across the board but was filling up steadily.

York St John went into clearing last week with only about 50 places available after receiving the biggest increase in applicants of any university in England. It was said to be in the process of making offers for these places last week.

Nationally more students have been accepted onto degree courses through clearing this year compared with 2011 despite fewer people applying to university.

Leeds Met’s head of student admissions Stewart Harper told the Yorkshire Post last week that it had been the busiest clearing ever.

A Hull University spokeswoman said yesterday: “We have seen a significant number of calls already this year, with more than 3,000 enquiries having been made so far.

“In response to that, around 1,000 offers have been made to good quality students. We are still welcoming enquiries in many areas, apart from medicine, nursing, social work and operating department practice.”

York University said it had been pleased with the level of interest it had received through clearing.

The latest figures released yesterday by Ucas showed 399,158 students had been accepted into universities nationally this year down on 425,487 at the same point last year.

Of these 377,635 had secured a place through unconditional offers or meeting grades needed in a conditional offer while another 20,703 had got into university through the Ucas clearing system which allows people without a place to find suitable vacancies.

In total 631,759 candidates have gone through the Ucas application system this year down from 684,098 in 2011/12. It is thought many students did not take a gap year 12 months ago as it was the last chance to start university without facing higher tuition fees.

The maximum cap on fees was almost trebled to £9,000 a year for courses starting this year although students do not start to pay this back until they have graduated and started earning more than £21,000.

Figures released yesterday from Ucas showed there were still 61,000 students waiting for a decision on whether they will go to their original university choices.

There are also 162,000 candidates eligible to look for the available places through the clearing system, which, Ucas said, has more courses available than last year.

Carl Lygo, the head of the private BPP University College which is running degree courses in law, business law and banking in Leeds, says there are signs this year of students holding out for a better offer – saying candidates are “shopping around”.

He said: “What we are experiencing is a complete reverse of last year. It’s now a student market. This year, it’s the students that are calling the shots and unlike last year are making the universities wait on their decisions.”

The private provider is running two-year degree courses, charging £6,000 a year.