Over 409,000 students know they are accepted to UK universities and colleges as of today – up 3% against A level results day in 2014. This is the highest number of acceptances recorded on A level results day, and includes 362,000 students accepted to their first choice, up 3%, UCAS figures show.
There is a healthy increase of 5% in the number of UK 18 year olds placed in higher education and a 2% rise from 19 year olds, with fewer acceptances from older age groups.
More students from each of the four UK countries have been placed in higher education than at this point last year (England and Scotland +3%, Wales and Northern Ireland +1%).
The number of EU students placed has increased to 24,090 (+11%), and international acceptances have risen by 6% to 29,170.
The number of young UK students placed from the least advantaged backgrounds has risen by 4%.
Over 27,000 more young women from the UK are set to start university than young men, widening the gap between the sexes again this year.
Mary Curnock Cook, UCAS Chief Executive, said: “More UK 18 year olds will benefit from higher education in 2015 than in any year previously. More students in total have been placed at their first choice, an increase of 3% on 2014.
“This is an impressive outcome, given the slightly slower growth in the UK application rate.”
Our full suite of reports released today can be found here.
Applicants have been able to log in to Track on the UCAS website from 08:00 this morning to see if they have been accepted.
Students considering using the UCAS Clearing service can start researching courses this morning, before discussing their options with universities throughout the day. Students can make a formal Clearing choice from 17:00.
Courses with vacancies are listed on the UCAS website.
Full information and contact details can be found on the UCAS website and students can also direct questions to a UCAS expert on Twitter or Facebook.
NOTES TO EDITORS
UCAS is a charity and is the UK's shared admissions service for higher education. We manage applications from over 650,000 applicants each year for full-time undergraduate courses at over 350 universities and colleges across the UK.
The final applicant and acceptance totals for the cycle will be published in December, in our End of Cycle report.
For this cycle we introduced a parallel set of context statistics that excludes, from all cycles, applications to teacher training courses at providers in Scotland. This is because a large set of teacher training courses in Scotland are being recruited through the UCAS Undergraduate scheme for the first time in 2015, having previously been recruited through UCAS Teacher Training.
The primary set of statistics describes all acceptances in the UCAS scheme. The context set of statistics (headline numbers quoted in this press release) gives a better ‘like for like’ comparison of 2015 to earlier cycles, particularly when looking at applicants from Scotland, providers in Scotland, or the Education subject group.
In Scotland there is a substantial section of provision that is not included in UCAS' figures. This is mostly full-time higher education provided in further education colleges which represents around one third of young full-time undergraduate study in Scotland, and this proportion varies by geography and background in Scotland.
Accordingly, the statistics on UCAS acceptances in these data resources reflect only that majority of full-time undergraduate study that uses UCAS Undergraduate.
Media contacts
UCAS Press Office: 01242 545 469
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