University numbers set new record

A RECORD number of students have been accepted for university this year, up 2.3 per cent on last year.

The university admissions body, Ucas, said 379,411 applicants had now won a place at university or college across the UK, compared with 371,016 at this time last year.

The latest figures emerged yesterday as students received their A-level results.

Earlier this month, record Higher exam results in Scotland saw an "unprecedented scramble" to enter higher education.

Within days, more than half of Scotland's universities were full, with the rest reporting far fewer left over places in clearing than usual.

Higher education leaders said those who did not get their required grades would find it one of the "toughest years ever" to get into university, while student leaders warned that those denied a place could be let down after years of hard work.

Last year, 2,462 Scottish students found a place through clearing, but barely hundreds are likely to do so this year.

The record figures follow two years of soaring university applications because of job opportunities drying up.

Mary Curnock Cook, Ucas chief executive, said: "Thousands of applicants whose places have been confirmed today deserve congratulations for this achievement in perhaps the most competitive year for admissions in the last ten years."