Number of new students falls

The number of students accepted on full-time higher education courses fell by more than 15,000 compared to last year as controversial top-up fees came into force.

Provisional figures from the admissions services Ucas showed 389,505 applicants were accepted on UK full-time higher education courses starting this year compared with 404,668 in 2005 and 375,530 in 2004.

This represents a fall of 3.7 per cent between 2006 and 2005 but a rise of 3.7 per cent between 2006 and 2004, Ucas said.

The fall over the past year comes as undergraduates starting degree courses this autumn are charged top-up fees of up to £3,000 a year although they will not have to pay until after graduation.

The Ucas figures also show 37,729 applicants successfully found a place through clearing in comparison with 36,904 last year.

In total, 504,748 would-be students applied to courses through Ucas this year, a reduction of 3.1 per cent on 2005 and an increase of 4.3 per cent on 2004.

The majority of applications, 98.1 per cent, were made online.

Ucas figures released last month showed the number of people applying to university was already down by around 15,000 compared to last year.

The same statistics, released in September, also showed that about 13,000 fewer students had been accepted on to courses than at the same time in 2005.

Universities have been keen to point out that applications and acceptances have been up on 2004, and have characterised last year's figures as a blip due to some students rushing to avoid top-up fees.

According to the September figures, the total number of applicants to universities and colleges in 2006 was 501,887, compared with 480,200 in 2004 and 516,714 in 2005.

Meanwhile, 385,149 students had found a place at university as at September 25, compared with 369,695 at roughly the same point in 2004 and 398,214 in 2005.

The total number of English applicants accepted on to UK full-time education courses starting in 2006 fell 4.5 per cent from 301,206 in 2005 to 287,739 in 2006, according to the Ucas figures.

The number of students from Wales accepted on to UK full-time higher education courses in the same period showed a 0.3 per cent drop from 16,849 to 16,801.

The number of applications from students from Scotland accepted to UK full-time higher education courses declined 3.5 per cent to 26,666 from 27,646, with the figure for Northern Ireland falling 7 per cent from 13,909 to 12,936.

Higher Education Minister Bill Rammell, commenting on England, said: "Today's Ucas figures confirm that our opponents are being proved wrong.

"We were told that variable fees would lead to applications plummeting, particularly from young people from less well-off backgrounds.

"Well, that isn't happening. In fact, there is a slight increase in the proportion of students entering university from these backgrounds.

"And although this autumn we are seeing a small decrease - 4.5 per cent - in university entrants, this comes on the back of a larger than usual increase - 8.9 per cent - in those entering last year.

"Compared to 2004, numbers are up by 12,000, or 4.3 per cent.

"It's as we expected, and is what happened when tuition fees were first introduced in 1998.

"Then, there was a small reduction, after which applications continued upwards. The underlying trend is still up."

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LECCE | business | Language course in Italy to learn to speak Italian language | The Government risks causing irrevocable damage to education for the most disadvantaged adults by focusing on basic skills for work rather than wider learning, the head of an Oxford college has warned. Professor Audrey Mullender, principal of Ruskin College - alma mater of John Prescott - accused New Labour of pushing a dangerously narrow employer-driven agenda. | She said the wider role of education was in danger of being "lost in this country forever". The academic's college is hosting a major debate today to mark the 30th anniversary of an historic speech by the then prime minister, James Callaghan, credited by many to have changed the course of education policy. Phil Hope, the Education minister, and Roy Hattersley, the former Labour Party deputy leader, will rekindle discussion over the purpose of education in a debate that looks set to see Old Labour take on New Labour over its education strategy. | The college's further education budget was cut by 11 per cent this year because ministers focused money on basic literacy and numeracy classes and vocational courses for disaffected teenagers. Professor Mullender said this was taking money from the most disadvantaged groups the college has traditionally helped back into education, such as homeless people who may have no formal qualifications but can be tempted back into education by the diverse range of courses offered at Ruskin. | She said the Government's policies had benefited the middle classes at the expense of the most disadvantaged families. "In 2006, we are witnessing a wholesale undermining of the funding for liberal adult education, pushed aside by a narrow skills focus and an employer-driven agenda," she said. | "Higher education, too, is falling prey to regional number-crunching and political interference. Though it does still give many people a genuine chance to think for themselves, there is evidence that policies aimed at widening participation are benefiting the affluent classes more than the disadvantaged groups we all want to reach." | At Ruskin, on 18 October 1976 Mr Callaghan delivered a historic speech, known as the Great Debate. In it he set out his view on the purpose of education, insisting that it must never be used merely to train people for work. "The goals of our education, from nursery school through to adult education, are clear enough. They are to equip children to the best of their ability for a lively constructive, place in society, and also to fit them to do a job of work. | "Not one or the other but both. There is now wide-spread recognition of the need to cater for a child's personality, to let it flower in its fullest possible way." | But it is this principle that Professor Mullender fears has been undermined by New Labour's focus on the skills needed by employers. | "We feel the Government has lost sight of this [wider role of education] and is just looking at the work side of things. It is now all about employers and what they want," she said. | "What worries me generally is the government agenda which is causing damage in further education and adult learning." | Ruskin College was established in 1899 as an independent, providing university-standard education for working-class people to enable them to act more effectively on behalf of working class communities and organisations. It specialises in educating adults with few or no qualifications many of whom were prevented from succeeding the first time around because of financial, personal or social obstacles.