Undergraduate applications for next year rise while postgraduates fall

A paper from the College Secretary reveals that Imperial College’s undergraduate application rate has increased on last year against a backdrop of falling applicant rates to UK universities across the board. Postgraduate application numbers, however, are at present lower than last year.

The number of students applying to study undergraduate courses at Imperial for 2013 entry is up by 4.2% compared to last year’s 2012 entry statistics. This is more significant against the trend in the UK, with last year’s UCAS data revealing a 7.4% drop in application rates in a year.

The cause for the drop has been attributed to combination of various effects including ripples from the tuition fees rise and population effects. The main group causing the fall is UK applicants who, in the UCAS data, had an even greater 8.7% drop. Apparently, according to the National Office for Statistics, the number of 18 year olds in the UK population is falling; the drop was at the rate of 1.4% last year. Imperial College has a large number of overseas and international students, with ~30% from outside the EU, so would be less affected than most other universities.

Of course, Imperial is still an attractive prospect. The is still high in the league tables and is a relatively well known university, so it may be that it is continuing to attract students even when universities seem to be a less credible choice.

In contrast to this, the postgraduate figures are down on last year. It is still early in the recruitment cycle, and so this figure is not yet concrete. The Management Board have responded by requesting monthly updates on the situation with fresh figures.