Students who apply only to “a narrow range of highly competitive and selective” university courses are unlikely to receive many offers as demand for places grows, an admissions expert at Cambridge University has warned.
Ucas, the universities admissions body in the UK, has predicted there could be 30% more applicants to higher education by the end of the decade.
Reducing the number of choices that applicants can make could help university admission staff focus on those “at the border for receipt of an offer”, Mike Nicholson, director of recruitment, admissions and participation at the University of Cambridge, has suggested.
A debate about the challenges and opportunities created by rising demand was launched by Ucas last month as it projected that around a million people a year could apply to higher education by 2030. Last year, 767,000 people applied to higher education in the UK.
