Applications to Cambridge this year have risen by 1.4%, despite figures suggesting that overall applications to UK universities have fallen by 5.6% compared to this point in last year’s application cycle.

The national university application figures, released by UCAS, show a decrease of over 18,000 applications compared to the same point in last year’s application cycle, with total applications falling from 321,908 to 303,861. This is accompanied by an even more pronounced decline of 6.5% in applications from students living in England and a decline of 11.7% from students living in Wales.

If the end of cycle figures still show a decline after applications close on 15th January, this will be the second year of a fall in applications, with a 6.4% fall between 2011 and 2012 after the rise in the tuition fee cap to £9,000 per year. Applications by non-EU students have risen by 0.8% at this point in the cycle, after a 13% rise last year - though non-EU students still only make up 8% of the overall applicant pool.

By contrast, the number of undergraduate applications to Cambridge rose this year from 15,701 to 15,913 according to the Cambridge Admissions Office website. This is the second year in a row that the University has bucked the national trend. Last year, despite the large drop in applications to UK universities, total applications to Cambridge rose by 2%.

However, not all colleges and courses have experienced increases in undergraduate applications this year - Emmanuel College saw a drop of 10% on the previous year and applications to Jesus College fell by 9%. Colleges seeing boosts in application numbers included Pembroke (+18%), Clare (+13%) and King’s (+14%).

Colleges for mature students have had a particularly bad year for undergraduate applications, with only Wolfson seeing a rise in applicants. Of particular note are Hughes Hall, which saw a 16% fall in applications, and St Edmund’s, where applications dropped by 34%, from 185 to 123.

Application numbers have varied between courses this year, with Computer Science seeing an impressive 28% rise in applications and Graduate Medicine applications increasing by 26%. Not all science subjects have benefited, with falls in application for Maths, the undergraduate Medicine course, and for Veterinary Medicine.

Arts subjects have also seen varied effects - there were large increases in applications for Geography (+16%) and History (+7%), while Economics and Law both saw significant decreases of 11% each, and applications for MML fell by a staggering 20%.

Francesca Day, a fourth-year physicist who also works as a CAMbassador for the Admissions Office commented “I think the fall in overall university applications is most likely due to the increase in tuition fees - although student loans are very good as loans go, £9000 per year is probably more money than many 17 year olds have ever seen, so it is understandably off-putting. In these circumstances, it is impressive that Cambridge applications have risen. Cambridge do a lot of access work to try to ensure that people are not put off applying for the wrong reasons, so maybe we are seeing the effects of this.” 

Commenting on the national applications, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills put out a press release stating that figures before the application cycle had ended should not be given undue prominence: "It is too early to form a definitive picture about university applications for the 2013/14 academic year. Traditionally fewer than 50 per cent of applicants have submitted their applications by this point in the cycle.”

"It is important that no one is put off applying to university because they do not have information about the student support available to them. Most new students will not pay upfront, there will be more financial support for those from poorer families and everyone will make lower loan repayments than they do now once they are in well-paid jobs."

Support Varsity

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding and we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too!

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as £1, to help with our running costs. Many thanks, we hope you can help!