Fewer people applied to UK universities by the main January deadline than the record numbers of recent years, figures reveal, with demand for nursing and teaching courses seeing the biggest falls in demand.
The latest data show that 596,590 people applied for places through the admissions service Ucas by the equal consideration deadline of 25 January – down 2.3 per cent on the year before and below the peak of 616,360 in 2021.
The number of applicants was still above the number recorded in 2020 – the last year before the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic were felt across higher education.
These figures mirror previous Ucas statistics that revealed a “worrying” drop in the number of early applications to the country’s most selective university courses.
