Universities have had to cut back on spending which in turn has led to a squeeze on the number of places available. I suspect that the jump in the number of people applying to universities is due to the lack of jobs available during these credit crunch times. Many of those who would normally have been able to find employment fairly easily find themselves out of work with nothing to occupy them. In these cases getting a degree seems a good alternative.

Ministers are trying to get university’s to offer more places, but this is unlikely to happen as the ministers are not offering them any more money to do so.

Those who already have a university place guaranteed for September should consider themselves very lucky, while those who are not so fortunate may have to wait until next year before they can start their degree course, when hopefully the economy will be in a better state.