Women still outstripping men for university places
University entrance figures published today show that more women than ever before have been accepted into higher education courses.
The percentage of women entering full time undergraduate courses rose by 4.2 per cent to 168,349, whereas men saw a lower rise of 3.6 per cent to 141,274.
Women now account for 54.4 per cent of new university entrants.
In 2004 there was a 2.7 per cent rise in the number of applicants applying to university to take the number to 463,929. Out of these, 309,624 have had their places confirmed.
Law is still the most popular undergraduate degree, closely followed by design studies. This year’s biggest rises in popularity were in crafts (up 38.4 per cent) and in journalism (up 29.5 per cent.)
Traditionalists will be pleased to see a 12.8 per cent rise in maths and a 29.3 per cent rise in civil engineering.
Subject areas that are showing a drop in accepted applicants compared with last year include computer science (down by 15 per cent), information systems (down by 28 per cent) and electronic and electrical engineering (down by 9 per cent). While chemistry has seen a slight increase of 3.8 per cent in acceptances, both physics and biology have declined by 6.9 per cent and 2.1 per cent respectively.
UCAS chief executive, Anthony McClaran said: “I’m delighted that we are continuing to see a rise in the numbers of people entering higher education. The very fact that we are able to process decisions faster and more efficiently than ever before means that students have a clear view of their future in record time.”
“We continue to see that law is still a popular choice for students accepting places and it is also encouraging to see significant increases in number of students placed on courses related to medicine.”
Further updates on the university entrance figures are expected on September 1st, 15th and 22nd.
