Top-up fees fuel rise in university applications

Up to 100,000 young people are likely to be left without a university place as a result of a surge in applications this year.

Latest figures show an 8.2 per cent rise in applications, with student leaders claiming many are aiming to avoid top-up fees of £3,000 a year, which will be introduced in September 2006.

Companies arranging gap years for students report a sudden surge in inquiries as would-be students make contingency plans in case they do not get the university place of their choice.

The figures show there were 486,915 applicants this year - compared with just 450,147 at the same time in 2004. A total of 377,000 places were awarded last year. The vast majority of applicants are from the UK - 415,463 this year.

This year's A-level results are out next Thursday. The number of students getting A and B-grade passes is expected to rise, and this means that more bright youngsters are likely to be turned away from popular courses in subjects such as medicine and law at the leading universities.

Figures show at least 5,000 youngsters with three grade As at A-level fail to get their first-choice course every year. Many are already contacting gap-year companies and are planning to try again for a place next year, according to Year Out Group, which represents about 35 different companies arranging gap-year projects for students.

A spokesman for Universities UK, which represents university vice-chancellors, said: "The number of applicants has continually risen since 2000 and we are pleased to see the figure is still on the increase. It is inevitable that competition for courses will increase, in particular for popular courses and popular higher education institutions."

Student leaders put the surge in applications down to the introduction of top-up fees next year. However, ministers deny this - and say that extra student support next year in the form of grants of £2,700 a year plus bursaries of at least £300 from all universities charging the maximum will make it easier for students from hard-up families to manage financially. Ministers and vice-chancellors point out that fees do not have to be paid until after graduation for those who still have to pay.

Ministers have also told students they will be exempted from top-up fees if they take a gap year - provided they have applied for entry to university this year and deferred taking their place by 1 August. However, many had applied for university this autumn before knowing of this decision.

Helen Bentley, an 18-year-old pupil at Ysgol Bryn Elian in Colwyn Bay, north Wales, had considered abandoning her gap year because of top-up fees. "I considered leaving the gap year but it is something I wanted to do. So when I heard I could defer placement and not pay [top-up fees] I booked it," she said. She will teach in Uganda for three months.

Helen, who took history, English and biology and has a provisional place at Queen Mary, London to study politics on three Bs, added: "I know a lot of people in my year who decided against a gap year."

Ella Walters: 'I felt I needed a break'

Ella Walters, 18, from the Latymer school in Edmonton, north London, was hoping to study maths at Leeds or Sussex university. But now she plans to visit Australia and Thailand and defer her university place for a year. Ella, from Highbury, who took art, maths and further maths at A-level, said: "I wanted to have a break away from studying. Since GCSEs we've been doing exams every year for three years. I felt I needed to have a year off.

"I've deferred entry which means I don't have to pay. If I had applied to university at the end of my gap year I would still have had to pay top-up fees."