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University applications up 23%

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Reply 40

shark67

The government need to be shot. Bunch of ********, even Karzai would do a better job in this country.

Reply 41

Muddy91

Leighthesim

Great.... i am royal screwed, because i have to drop one of my as subjects(i shouldn't have taken it) so i am going to be at a disadvantage because i cant write an essay, and my school wont let me do further maths instead- thats not fair because i could have got 4 a's but cause i will only have 3 all the private school peices of **** will steal all the places at the good uni's and someone who has had to work there arse off all year won't, thanks alot screwed up british education system.

Don't blame us, blame yourself for picking an essay subject, when you're ***** at essay writing. And dont assume your gonna get 3 As.

Reply 42

Talveer

The record numbers are because everyone can choose 5 choices now.

So in reality the numbers of actual people applying might not have gone up but the individual applications to each uni will have.

Because thats like 2 more choices per person for a lot of people

THis is because they scrapped route A and B and just went with route A this time round.

Reply 43

oodalallyoodalally

The competition is only for popular courses and most of them ('cept medicine and some others) have shaky employment prospects anyway. If you're applying for hard science courses( as in chemistry or physics) or languages then don't worry too much. I have five chemistry offers from good unis and i have crap grades. :smile:

Reply 44

n_251

It really is a shame. I haven't read the article completely but it doesn't specify where the cuts will be made (or does it?)
If the cuts are made at the bottom end of the scale and some of the, frankly, pointless courses out there are scrapped then the cuts may not be significant. I don't want to come across in the wrong way but University is not for everyone. Some people excel at the more practical side of things and for this reason apprenticeships, etc. should be promoted to these sorts of people instead of pushing them into higher education and lumbering them with masses of debt and a degree not worth a huge amount when they could have spent those 3/4 years building up practical experience and earning some money.

Having said that, everyone deserves to be given the choice and I think these spending cuts are in the wrong place! Why not cut defence expenditure by a greater amount? Or even better, why not have all this money MPs are paying back put into a fund to finance a few extra places! (lol ok I guess that second solution is a bit silly but education is not the place to be making cuts in most cases!!)

Reply 45

Quady

n_251

(lol ok I guess that second solution is a bit silly but education is not the place to be making cuts in most cases!!)

So should it be the NHS or pensions? Between those three the majority of spending goes, if spending has to be cut 15-20% isn't it reasonable education will get hit?

Reply 46

Quady

Talveer

So why did applications go up 15% last year?

Reply 47

Liquidus Zeromus

Cut places even more I say, and make people pay £1000 a year out of their own money on top of tuition if they want to study at university. We don't need so many graduates, a basic price will keep the dregs and currs out.

Reply 48

WhatTheFunk

Liquidus Zeromus

well done that just pushes out people who can't afford to pay that amount

the issue is the lack of non uni stuff, people going out to earn a traded, and that schools pretty much push anyone to at least apply to uni even if they don't want to go

lets not forget the job market is pretty poor, so not only do you have school leavers going for places, but a lot of people going back to re-train and better themselves

Reply 49

Quady

Talveer

I don't know but I might be wrong but what I said is true that in route B last year you could only choose 3 but now everyone is only Route A so tons of students get 2 extra choices.

That would mean only around 100,000 people have applied for uni this year though.

Are you sure one application form = multiple applications for this?

The BBC says:

'Overall, 570,556 would-be students applied to universities in the UK this year.'

Reply 50

Quady

robinson999

It just takes us back to 2005.

Are you saying the introduction of top up fees brought more people in who previously couldn't afford to pay?

Reply 51

n_251

Quady

So should it be the NHS or pensions? Between those three the majority of spending goes, if spending has to be cut 15-20% isn't it reasonable education will get hit?

Funnily enough, they were floating an idea on the BBC today of charging drunk people for the burden they place on the health system and although this may not be an ideal solution (i.e. try asking a completely wasted person for £500 for a hospital procedure - yh not happening!), it would allow a diversion of spending from the NHS.

I guess you could say a similar thing about education but IMHO I'm not sure cuts of such magnitude need to be made so soon, especially when they will cost 6000 or so places. But, in reply to your question, yes it is fair education should take some of the hit but I'm not sure it needs to be so significant.

Reply 52

Quady

n_251

6,000 places in the context of over 450,000 is pretty small...

Reply 53

Talveer

Quady

Hmm I'm not sure but it definitely has an effect on the university.

Because before when students only picked 3 unis they really wanted now they chuck in 2 extras as back up, but the unis still have to consider all students equally.

So as you can imagine there must be a jump somewhere, such as a uni might get 600 applicants for 100 places and only around 80 of them had the uni as their first choice, the rest just chucked it in to take up one of the extra choices.

Thats the kind of build up I'm getting at. :o:

Reply 54

Locke54

Talveer

People used to be able to make 6 choices...

Reply 55

username350927

Now there is no chance I will get into LSE, UCL or Warwick

Guess I have to go Manchester :frown:

Reply 56

WhatTheFunk

Quady

It just takes us back to 2005.

Are you saying the introduction of top up fees brought more people in who previously couldn't afford to pay?

the poster more saying that people pay out of their own pocket on top of the £3225, that is it now unless i was reading that wrong then i am sorry

i don't really care for fees i think paying £3225 is pretty cheap for a degree level education, and its not as if you have to pay it all back at once

Reply 57

n_251

Quady

6,000 places in the context of over 450,000 is pretty small...

true but that goes back to my original point of where these cuts will have the greatest effect. Will courses that have virtually no graduate prospects be scrapped? If so, then these cuts may not be soo terrible after all but if we are goig to miss out on x000 medics, dentists or quality engineers then there really is a problem.