The battle of the universities
The University of Manchester looks to be on course to achieve its target of being the biggest higher education institution in the country if the new UCAS figures are anything to go by.
Formerly Manchester Victoria and UMIST, the newly merged university saw 62,806 degree applications this year – almost 2% up on last year's combined total. It also widened the gap on second place Leeds, which saw its applications rise by a total of just four.
Most popular
- University of Manchester
- University of Leeds
- University of Nottingham
- Manchester Metropolitan University
- University of Birmingham
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Bristol
- University of Ulster
- University of Sheffield
- Cardiff University
The 2005 top ten is identical to 2004, save for tenth position which last year was taken by Liverpool. This year it dropped three places and was replaced at ten by the newly-expanded Cardiff University.
Other institutions with something to celebrate include Bolton – recently granted university status, its applications jumped by 43.4%. The University of Wales, Newport, had an increase of 38.5% and Thames Valley University's applications rose by 32.2%.
Among those with cause for concern, the university with the largest fall in applications was Lancaster, with a reduction of 8.8% on last year. Nottingham meanwhile lost 7.3% and Napier in Edinburgh 5.7%.
UCAS said that significant changes in the numbers of applications can be down to new courses being added, the withdrawal or merger of existing courses, or changes in entry requirements among other things.
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