'No panic' over university places

Thousands of university places are still vacant

The government has denied that its plans to get half of all young people into higher education have been thrown into doubt by an apparent lack of demand for extra university places.

About 48,000 extra places have been made available in the first phase of the renewed expansion of the higher education sector this year.

But 11 days after the publication of this year's A-level results, only 5,000 more students had taken up places than at the same time last year.

The numbers accepted through the clearing process were slightly down on 1999 figures.

And the total number of students applying for university places was also down by more than 1,600.

Theresa May: "Wrong to set targets"

Shadow Education Secretary, Theresa May, said the statistics, published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas), proved that the government had been wrong to set "arbitrary" higher education targets.

But it emerged that some interpretations of the figures were misleading, as the majority of the 48,000 extra places are in fact part-time places which are expected to be taken up in the next few months - mainly by mature students going back into education.

Only about 13,000 of the new places are for full-time students.

This is still considerably more than the number of extra students accepted so far this year, but Ucas said there was no need to panic about the success of the expansion of the higher education sector.

Money worries

In her attack on the government, Ms May said that the cost of going to university, including tuition fees of up to £1,050 a year, was putting some students off.

"We said all along that the extra places were more about hitting an arbitrary target than meeting the needs of young people.

"It looks as if the young people are giving the government their clear view of this, partly because the financial position is making them think twice about whether it is worth taking some of these courses.

"The great danger is that if there is no increase in applications, universities and colleges will try to meet the target by dumbing down."

Some of Ms May's views were echoed by Ben Monks, of the National Union of Students, who said: "Fees are an obstacle up front, and there's an increasing problem with maintenance.

"There's not enough money for people to live on available from the state. There's also the problem of student debt."

He added that many young people from low socio-economic backgrounds simply did not expect to enter higher education.

'Early days'

But a spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Employment said: "It's still very early in the clearing process. Many students are considering their options. We remain committed to opening up higher education.

"Our target is that 50% of young people by the age of 30 go to university, not school leavers.

"Currently about 43% of young people do so. Two thirds of the new places are for part-time students. These don't go through Ucas clearing and are not normally taken up by school leavers."

This defence was reiterated by a Ucas spokesman, who added that the clearing process still had more than a month to run.

"The fact is that we are 5,000 up on the same time last year, despite the problems that have been happening in Scotland," he said.

"We expect 50,000 more people to get places in the next few weeks, and the final figures to be between about 5,000 and 10,000 up on last year. There is no great panic."

Professor Roderick Flood, of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals, denied that an expansion of the sector, meaning more choice and flexibility for students, would lead to a drop in standards.

He said he believed that universities' admissions targets would be met, and that the government's overall target for higher education expansion would also be realised by 2009.