424,000 students have been accepted to UK universities and colleges so far this year– up 3% on A level results day in 2015, UCAS figures show today.
This is the highest number recorded on A level results day.
There are 201,000 UK 18 year old applicants placed, +2% on 2015 despite the population falling by 2.3%. Young people from the UK are 4% more likely to have been placed in higher education than last year.
There are also more acceptances from older age groups, with acceptances for those aged 25 or older from the UK up 8%.
More students from each of the four UK countries have been placed in higher education than at this point last year (England 307,200, Scotland 31,900, Wales 16,600 and Northern Ireland 12,000).
The number of EU students placed has increased to 26,800 (+11%) – the highest number recorded – and international acceptances have stayed around the same level as 2015 (+0.4%) at 29,300.
UK 18-year-olds from the least advantaged backgrounds are 7% more likely to be placed than in 2015, although the most advantaged young people are still 2.5 times more likely to be accepted to HE.
Over 27,400 more young women than men from the UK have already been placed at university, but this gap is slightly narrower than in 2015 with 3% more men placed in 2016 and 2% more women.
Mary Curnock Cook, UCAS Chief Executive, said: “This is a big day for hundreds of thousands of young people who have chosen to kick start their adult life with higher education – well done to all of them.
“I’m particularly pleased to see the first small signs of improvement for young men, although they are still too far behind.”
Applicants were able to log in to Track on the UCAS website from 8am 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 3pm.
Courses with vacancies are listed on the UCAS website.
Full information and contact details can also be found on the website and students can also direct questions to a UCAS expert on Twitter or Facebook.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About UCAS
UCAS is a charity and is the UK's shared admissions service for higher education. We manage applications from around 700,000 applicants each year for full-time undergraduate courses at over 380 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.
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.
From the 2015 cycle onwards, applications to postgraduate teacher training programmes in Scotland were included in the UCAS Undergraduate admissions scheme, previously these were recruited through UCAS Teacher Training. In 2015, around 120 courses at providers in Scotland moved into the UCAS Undergraduate scheme, estimated to represent around 2,000 acceptances, mostly aged 21 or over. Comparisons between 2016 and 2014 (or earlier cycles) will be affected by this change.
Media contacts
UCAS Press Office: 01242 545 469