Find more cash for universities, Ministers told

Yorkshire universities have received 37,000 more applications for degree courses than at this time last year, figures announced by UCAS revealed yesterday.

Across the country there have been an extra 106,000 applications – 22. 9 per cent up on last year.

As the Yorkshire Post revealed last week, some of the region's universities have seen increases of up to a third.

York St John University has seen the number of applications for degree courses rise from 5,480 last year to 7,101 this year while students choosing Sheffield Hallam have increased from 28,899 in 2009 to 38,111 according to the latest figures.

Leeds Met and Huddersfield have also seen increases above the national average.

About 570,000 people have applied to start university across the country this year.

Last year 480,000 students were awarded places and there are expected to be about 6,000 fewer places available from September.

Huddersfield University's deputy vice chancellor Professor Peter Slee said Ministers should provide more funding to cope with the extra demand.

He said: "The Government has not cut the number of places available yet and we will have to wait and see, but it hasn't increased them either.

"There are decisions to make on whether they want to be creating more opportunity to help people secure future employment.

This is a decision we would encourage them to look at." Prof Slee has warned that students who fail to get the required grades will face a struggle getting into university this year.

Universities are receiving record number of applications at a time when they have been told to expect budget cuts of around 1bn as the Government attempts to tackle the nation's mounting debt.

Last month, universities learned that their budgets were to be slashed by 449m for 2010/11, including a 1.6 per cent reduction of 215m in teaching funding. The higher education sector has also been told to expect cuts of about 600m from 2012.

Prof Steve Smith, president of the vice chancellors' group Universities UK, said: "With this further jump in demand and the continued cap on student numbers in England, it's inevitable that we are going to see even more pressure on places this year and the strong possibility of many well-qualified students missing out." "With this unprecedented demand for higher education courses, we believe that the case for continued public investment in higher education is overwhelming." Applications from mature students have gone up by nearly two-thirds 63.4 per cent and there has been a 45.5 per cent rise in the number of people reapplying to university compared with last year.

The University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt said: "You cannot make savage funding cuts without serious consequences, despite Lord Mandelson's insulting efforts to sell the cuts as an opportunity.

"The Government is abandoning a generation who, instead of benefiting from education, will find themselves on the dole alongside sacked teaching staff." Universities Minister David Lammy insisted there is a record number of students in higher education.

He said: "Getting a place at university has always been, and should be, a competitive process. Not everyone gets the grades and some decide university is not for them.

"But it's early days and students haven't even sat their A-levels yet." Shadow Universities Minister David Willetts said: "This is a dramatic surge in applications.

With so few opportunities for jobs and training many more young people are applying to university instead.

"The trouble is they will face tight limits on student numbers due to the mess Labour has made of the public finances."

Graduates face double whammy

University graduates are suffering a "double hit" of increased tuition fees and a freeze in pay when they find a job, according to a new study.

Average graduate salaries are predicted to remain at 25,000 for the second year in a row in 2010, an "unprecedented" development, according to the Association of Graduate Recruiters.

Graduates of 2009 and 2010 will also be the first to pay top-up tuition fees for all three years of their degree, the employers group noted.

Chief executive Carl Gilleard said of the pay freeze: "This could not have come at a worse time for the current crop of graduates who are the first to enter the workplace with the daunting task of paying off three years of tuition fees ahead of them."