English universities compete harder for applicants
ALMOST all university applicants now know where they will be going in the autumn. As recruitment winds down, two changes are apparent. The first is a rise in the proportion of candidates who found a university via “clearing”, having already received their A-level results, which is up to 9.2% from 7.5% at the same stage in 2013. The second is a big rise in the number of unconditional offers, where entry does not depend on obtaining certain grades. In 2013, just 1.1% of applicants received an unconditional offer. This year 22.9% did.
Together the changes indicate the growing power of students. Most funding now follows them, since they get government loans of £9,250 ($12,000) a year to pay for tuition. From 2012 the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government gradually removed caps on the number of students universities could recruit. This allowed universities to expand, and thus to attract more students from poor backgrounds.
It also...