31/01/2012

'Not Too Late' To Apply To Uni - Willets

The Education Minister has told school leavers it's not too late to apply to university, after figures showing a 9% decrease in applications was released on Monday.

Responding to the figures, Mr Willets said that even with a reduction in applications, it would still be a "competitive year" like any other.

"It is important that people have the information they need to make life-changing decisions about their future. Our very successful student finance tour also reached more than 145,000 students and parents to make sure they had the facts about our new student finance system," Mr Willets said.

He added: "We have also asked universities to ensure that transparent, comparable information is available for prospective students."

On Monday it emerged that almost 9% fewer students had applied for a place in University since the ramping up of tuition fees, according to figures from the admissions service.

Last year the Government controversially trebled the maximum fees payable for a university place to £9,000 per year, leading to applications collapsing by nearly 9% on average.

(DW)

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