UK universities boost domestic intake as maths remains most popular A-level
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The UK’s top universities have boosted their intake of domestic students due to “uncertainty” over international recruitment and intensifying financial pressures, according to admissions data released as pupils receive their A-level results.
The number of UK 18-year-olds accepted by high-ranking universities rose 7.2 per cent for courses starting this autumn compared with last year, the admissions service Ucas said on Thursday.
Lower-ranking institutions registered an increase of just 1.4 per cent.
Speaking ahead of results day, Ucas chief executive Jo Saxton said universities were “falling back in love” with UK students as they offered stability around financial planning as the sector faced “uncertainty” over international recruitment.
A-level results data released by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) on Thursday showed strong interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects. Maths remained the most popular A-level, with entries rising 4.4 per cent.
Physics and economics also registered a notable rise, while psychology, biology and history had the largest decline in entries among the top 10 subjects.
Jill Duffy, chief executive of exam board OCR, said the rise in maths entries represented a “step change from previous generations”, but added that there was still “much more to do” to boost uptake among girls.
The data also showed that boys took the lead in the highest grades over girls for the first time since 2018.
A-level standards were in line with last year, with the share of A*s rising from 9.3 per cent to 9.4 per cent and the pass rate remaining broadly stable at 97.5 per cent.
The number of A-level entries declined 0.5 per cent to 882,509 despite a rise in the number of UK 18-year-olds.
More than 250,000 vocational and technical qualifications such as BTecs were awarded this year, including a record 29,608 T-levels. This is the fourth year of results for the two-year qualification that combines classroom learning with industry placements.
Chris Rea, a graduate careers expert at Prospects, said students no longer viewed university as “the only, or even the best, route to career success”, adding that “young people are increasingly open to diverse paths”.
The admissions data showed that a record 439,180 applicants have been accepted for university places, up 3.1 per cent on last year.
Engineering and technology courses had the largest rise in placed applicants, with numbers increasing 12.5 per cent from last year, followed by maths with a 10.5 per cent rise.
The number of acceptances on to computing courses declined 5 per cent and language degrees by 4 per cent.
Ucas data showed the number of accepted international undergraduates increased 2.9 per cent compared with last year, driven by a 13 per cent rise in students from China, the largest overseas market.
The figures only reflect two-thirds of overseas undergraduates, but separate data from student enrolment platform Enroly shows overall international recruitment has bounced back.
Overseas applications have recovered from 2024, when changes to visa rules dented demand. However, the sector has warned that a £621mn-a-year hit from a proposed levy on international fee income could further undermine the UK’s competitiveness.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson told Times Radio that the government had “made it a priority to put our universities on a more sustainable footing”, but acknowledged there was more to be done.
“[We took] the difficult but necessary decision quite early on as a government to increase tuition fees to make sure that universities have a more stable funding stream into the future,” she said, adding that the role of the sector regulator had also been changed to focus on universities’ financial health.
Later this year, a white paper will set out more details of the government’s plans for post-16 education.
