UCAS announce drop in arts applications

by Denise Amend

University applications for creative arts and design courses have dropped by a sixth following the announcement of plans to increase tuition fees to £9,000 this year.

Official figures released by Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) show that 227,729 applications for arts and design courses starting in September 2012 were received compared to 271,931 last year – a drop of 16.3 per cent.

Applications for places at the University of the Arts London (UAL) dropped by 19 per cent to 24,585 this year.

Last year, UAL applications were up by 14.7 per cent on the year before, driven by the government’s announcement that tuition fees would rise in 2012.

Suffered

However, UAL’s performance is not as bad as some of its closest competitors.

London’s City University saw applications drop by 21.6 per cent, Goldsmiths’ are down 23 per cent, while the University for the Creative Arts fell by 29.7 per cent.

Universities offering subjects allied to medicine, engineering, or physical sciences were not hit as hard, suggesting that prospective students are opting for subjects with better career prospects.

The number of applicants from the UK has decreased, as have applications from EU countries, by 8.7 and 11.2 per cent respectively, however applications from outside the EU have increased by 13.7 per cent.

Overall applications from all students, both home and abroad, are down by 7.4 per cent, the UCAS figures show.

Put off

While applications to English universities are down, Scottish universities have seen applications rise by 0.2 per cent due to an increase in applications from EU and international students.

Many believe that the rise in tuition fees has put students off studying, but UCAS Chief Executive Mary Curnock Cook believes that population changes could be a reason for the fall, and said that the drop in demand was larger among wealthier students than poorer ones.

"The indications are that demand for HE (Higher Education) will continue to outstrip the number of places available in 2012. Applications are already 50,000 ahead of the number of acceptances in 2011 and last year UCAS received over 100,000 further applications between January and the close of the cycle" she added.

Nicola Dandridge, Universities UK's Chief Executive, said that the dip was “far less dramatic than many were initially predicting.”

Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group of leading universities, said: "Despite all the hype, fee reforms are unlikely to cause a long-term decline in applications.”

Unprecidented

Despite the falls, applications are 16.4 per cent higher than in 2009, and many expect more applications to come in between now and the summer.

“We received an unprecedented high level of applications to the University in 2011/2012, partly due to the coming introduction of higher tuition fees in 2012/13. Even with the relative drop in applications, the ratio of applications to places for 2012/13 remains very high," a UAL spokesperson told Arts London News (ALN).

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU) blamed the rise in tuition fees for the drop: “The figures are very worrying and once again highlight the government's folly in raising tuition fees to as much as £9,000 a year.”

Despite the drop in applications, UAL said: "There continues to be a huge demand for creative graduates and we are sure that students at University of the Arts London will continue to reap the benefits of studying here."