Massive rise in applicants looking for Napier place

The increased popularity of the university means it has seen the largest rise of any of the Capital's universities and one of the biggest rises in Scotland.

The most popular courses this year include business management, nursing and midwifery, journalism, criminology, festival and event management, psychology, social sciences, and engineering.

University bosses believe the increase in applications to Edinburgh Napier is because of its reputation for graduate employability and its improved relationships with schools and colleges.

The latest figures show that 93.7 per cent of undergraduate students get jobs or go on to undertake further study six months after graduating.

Bosses also say that adding the word Edinburgh to the university's title in 2009, at a cost of 240,025, to highlight its location within the Capital had led to an increase in interest from prospective students.

The university revealed it had seen a "significant increase" in both the number of UK-based student applications and those from the EU. A total of 28.2 per cent of applications have been made by people living in the UK, while 28.7 per cent have come from people living elsewhere in the EU.

A spokesman said: "The rise in applications can be partly attributed to our strong reputation for graduate employability and our close links with industry.

"Other factors have included strengthening our relationships with schools and colleges, recruiting outside our traditional catchment areas and changing the university's name to reflect our location."

The university has seen a 25.5 per cent rise in applications this year compared with the same time last year, from 15,019 to 18,870.

This equates to the fifth largest rise in applications in Scotland - with UHI Millennium Institute, University of the West of Scotland, University of Abertay Dundee and Robert Gordon University also experiencing significant rises.

Edinburgh University experienced the largest drop out of all the Scottish universities in the number of overall applicants, from 45,258 in 2010 to 38,329 this year - a fall of 15.3 per cent. Edinburgh College of Art saw a rise of 13 per cent, from 3540 in 2010 to 4001 this year, while applications to Heriot-Watt rose from 8565 to 9166 - an increase of seven per cent.

Queen Margaret University saw a 6.4 per cent rise, from 5476 in 2010 to 5827.

A spokesman for Edinburgh University said: "The University of Edinburgh has always been an extremely popular choice for prospective students and we have been well aware for some time that the competition for places means that there are many good applicants who meet the minimum entry requirements but do not ultimately receive an offer. With 30 applicants per place for some courses, this can clearly lead to disappointment.

"As a result, we have tried to be a more explicit about the requirements you may have to meet - over and above the minimum requirements - to have a strong chance of getting an offer."

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