A “sea change” in undergraduate admissions that has “turned the market upside down” will continue to shape the English sector until the Westminster government looks again at unfreezing tuition fees, according to experts.
A record 41,000 students remained without a university place almost a month after A-level results day, after a sharp reduction in elite institutions’ intakes dragged down the overall entry rate for 18-year-olds in England, Northern Ireland and Wales for the first time since 2012.
Lower tariff universities have capitalised as higher tariff providers scaled back expansionist ambitions because of the increasingly difficult economics of providing places to UK-based students.
