Students facing tougher time over clearing

Neither Leeds nor Leeds Metropolitan expect to have any places at all available through the system which matches course vacancies to candidates who have not been offered a place at university.

Elsewhere Huddersfield said it will have a “very small number” of places available while York and York St John warned that they will have fewer vacancies through clearing than in previous years.

Bradford is also expected to have fewer places available than last year while Sheffield Hallam said it was too early to say what its clearing situation would be.

Only Hull University said it expected to have a similar number of places as last year when 350 students were accepted through the system.

Academics warned that competition through clearing would be stiffer this year as several universities have experienced big increases in the number of applications they have received.

Bradford has seen a 20 per cent increase, York St John’s were up by 17.5 per cent, Huddersfield’s applications were up by 13 per cent and at Leeds Met they were up 11.9 per cent.

Last year saw major competition for places at university with more than 200,000 applicants missing out nationally

In 2010 697,351 people applied for university courses but 210,022 were unsuccessful

This year there have been an extra 9,000 applications across the country but 10,000 fewer places available as there were extra vacancies made available last year to cope with the demand which have not been provided for courses starting in September.

The pressure has also been added to as the number of school leavers opting to take gap years has plummeted as students are reluctant to delay going to university until 2012 because they would be hit with higher fees as tuition rates rise to up to £9,000 a year.

The cost of university tuition is set to almost treble as the higher education sector responds to a major cut in its teaching grants from next year. The new fees will only be charged to first year students next year.

Huddersfield University’s deputy vice chancellor Prof Peter Slee said the drop in gap-year students had accounted for this year’s increase in applications but he expected numbers to decline in future because of a fall in the number of 18 to 21-year-olds in the population over the next 10 years.

He said: “In 10 years time there will be 20 per cent fewer people between the age of 18 and 21 which is why any drop off in applications because of the higher fees will be sharper than expected.”

Prof Slee said clearing this year would be tougher than last year but he urged people collecting their A-level results tomorrow not to panic. “I think people with good qualifications can still expect to get themselves a university place. Traditionally every year there are 100,000 people who apply to university who drop out of the system anyway.”

Huddersfield has had 24,200 applications this year compared with 21,300 last year. A spokesman said that a very small number of places would still be available through the clearing system.

A spokeswoman for York St John said it expected fewer places would be available through clearing than last year and that its entry requirement grades would be higher.

It has received 10,919 applications, compared with 9,292 at the same point last year, for around 1,500 places.

A Leeds Met spokeswoman said: “Currently we do not envisage having vacancies to offer in clearing this year for Home/EU applicants.

“However we will not make a final decision until we have processed A-level results. Therefore we are preparing to be open for clearing but we expect the number of any places to be very limited.”

Sheffield University said it had not yet finalised its clearing strategy but expected to have places available.

Although the university has experienced a 13 per cent drop in applications on last year it still received 34,618 applications for around 5,000 places.

A spokeswoman said: “In 2010, the university saw an exceptional increase in applications of 18 per cent, well in excess of the national average.

“The quality of applicants this year remains very high with strong applications being made across different subject areas.”

Sheffield University is one of the few institutions in the elite research-led Russell Group which expects to have places left through clearing.

Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, the London School of Economics, Imperial College London, Warwick, University College London, Edinburgh and Birmingham have all said they are not entering clearing.

Hull University does anticipate having clearing vacancies in its business school, technology subjects, physical and environmental sciences and languages.

It said it expects to have around 350 clearing spaces - in line with its 2010 figures.

A York University spokesman said it expected to be using clearing this year but with fewer places available than in 2010 when around 220 people were accepted onto courses using the system.

It has received 25,500 applications for 3,400 places meaning eight candidates for every place.