Ten percent drop in Warwick applications

Applications to study at Warwick in the 2012-2013 academic year have dropped by approximately ten percent on the previous year.

This will be the first year group to pay the higher fees of around £9000 per year and the drop in applications forecasted by many seems to have been realised.

In stark contrast to the oversubscription of students seen a few years ago, this year Warwick was even in clearing. There were clearing places in departments across all three faculties, from courses such as Engineering to History of Art and Psychology.

Nationally, university applications from UK students were down 8.9 percent, according to figures released by the admissions service earlier this year. However there was a 10 percent drop in the number of people from England applying to study in the UK, matching the drop in applications at Warwick.

James Entwistle, Education Officer, told the _Boar_: “In the case of a fall in applications, the first thing I’d attribute this to is the change in tuition fees. This is the first intake at £9,000 and all of the fears about how the changes would deter students have been to an extent realised.”

Entwistle only blamed the increase in fees to a point: “It was a fundamental misunderstanding of the debt-aversion of the cohort that, to a limit, explains the drop across the country”.

University officials have conceded that the drop in applicants was expected, but have not solely laid the blame with the increase in fees. Peter Dunn, Head of Communications, said: “Applications were down around 10 per cent, but we expected that as we have raised our entrance requirements over last two years; now almost all our courses require AAB.”

Mr Dunn however insisted the University is still in high demand, maintaining on average there is still around six applicants for every place.

Mr Dunn added: “We were in clearing this year and we had a small number of places for strong candidates in some courses. As of this morning [23 August], we have taken 64 students through clearing.”