Popular universities attribute appeal to value-for-money as fees increase

Nationally, the number of applicants to UK universities has slumped by 7.8 per cent sparking a debate about whether trebling fees to £9,000-a-year has put some young people off higher education.

Three of the nine universities in the region have, however, actually seen an increase in the number of people wanting to study full-time for degrees.

York St John has seen a 11.2 per cent increase as 9,083 applications were received through UCAS compared with 8,166 last year.

Huddersfield has had an 9.6 per cent increase in applications for full-time degrees from 18,018 in 2011 to 19,754 this year. Overall, however, its applications including part-time and foundation degree courses fell by 3 per cent.

Bradford was the only other university in the region which saw an increase despite it planning to charge top level fees of £9,000. It has had 13,534 applications compared with 13,481 12 months ago – a rise of 0.4 per cent.

Bradford University’s deputy vice chancellor for academic development Professor Barry Winn said: “We believe that our offer of professional education and the opportunity for graduate employment is something that our students take very seriously. In the new fees era our long term reputation on employability seems to have been a key influence on those choosing a degree with us.”

Huddersfield University’s deputy vice chancellor Prof Peter Slee said offering relevant courses and fair fees could have helped the institution increase applications.

“We have said to students that the fees we are charging reflect the average cost of delivering our courses and nothing more. We don’t know exactly what impact that has had on our numbers but as a university this is what we wanted to do.”

Huddersfield is the lowest charging university in the region with annual fees of £7,950.

Prof Slee also cited the number of degree courses at Huddersfield which lead to a professional qualification or involve work-based learning as a strength of the university.

Siona Mackelworth, director of admissions and marketing at York St John University said that the institution’s reputation for delivering strong teaching had helped it.

She added: “We have spent £75m on our campus in the last 10 years. We are a small university and we are based on one campus. When students and parents come on visits they see a place with a very strong community feel.”