Degree or Not Degree?

Research: (BBC news) The latest figures from the university admissions service UCAS, for June, showed applications from people in England were down 10% on the same time last year. In Wales, the drop was 2.9%, Northern Ireland 4.5% and Scotland 2.1%. The Independent Commission on Fees says there has been "a clear drop" in English students applying, compared with those from the rest of the UK. The University and College Union (UCU) said the figures were worrying. The union's general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: "Young people not applying for university have few other opportunities with levels of high unemployment and the difficulty securing other forms of education or training. These highlighted areas are of use to us as they relate directly to university fees and also what effect this is having on possible students looking to go to university. We can not only integrate elements of these facts into our script but also use these snippets of information within our interview questions.

(The Guardian) University applications drop amid higher tuition fees Total number of applicants to all British universities drops 7.7%, with highest fall of 29.2% at University for Creative Arts A band of English universities charging higher tuition fees have suffered steep drops in applications for study this September, according to official figures. The total number of applicants to all British universities has fallen by 7.7%, with a 10% drop in the number of English applicants, according to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas). Among those universities with larger undergraduate intakes, the University for the Creative Arts had the steepest drop in applicants, with 6,842 applying by the June deadline compared with 9,664 last year, a decline of 29.2%. The University of Derby saw application figures fall by 25.4%, while Surrey had a drop of just over 20%.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, which represents lecturers, said: "These figures once again highlight the folly of hiking up tuition fees to 9,000 and making England one of the most expensive countries in the world in which to access higher education." These facts and statistics are particularly useful to us as they are specific and provide official information. This enables us to integrate elements of this information into our documentary with confidence and gives us a clear direction as to where our documentary is going.

(BBC news) University tuition fees in England will increase again next year, the watchdog for fair access is predicting. The Office for Fair Access (Offa) says fees for 2013 will rise to an average of 8,507 a year, slightly above the current average of 8,414. We will use this information as it highlights to us how the situation will evolve financially.

(Huffington post) Tripling tuition fees is putting thousands of students off university, a study has revealed, with the NUS condemning the revelation as "tragic". Early indications suggest charging students a maximum of 9,000, which comes into play in September, is reducing the number of applications to English universities, according to the Independent Commission on Fees. There are 15,000 "missing" applicants - who were expected to apply for university in the coming academic year but did not, the ICF found. Applicant numbers in England are down 8.8% compared with two years ago, while applications from 18 and 19-year-olds are down by around 7% over the same period. The total number of people applying to English universities in 2010 was 421,448 and has fallen to 384,170 this year: a drop of 8.8% or around 37,000 fewer students.

Among 18 and 19-year-old applicants, there was a fall from 298,155 in 2010 to 276,629 in 2012: a drop of 7.2%. It suggests that this drop cannot be wholly explained by a reduction in the number of young people in the UK. This information shows what effect the university fees are having on students in particular and clarifies the change in the number of university applicants.