Record rush for university places

Ucas, the university admissions service, today published data which reveals that 344,064 people had submitted their applications to start courses this autumn by December 20, a 2.5 per cent rise on the same period last year.

The dealine for admissions for the majority of courses through Ucas is January 15.

Would-be students are eager to secure places for a September 2011 start in order to avoid facing up to £9,000 tuition fees – three times the current cost.

Those who enter university this autumn will be the last to avoid the rise, which wil be introduced in 2012.

There are around an extra 8,000 people contesting for the same number of places as last year and an estimated 230,000 missing out on university this year.

However, the Ucas figures show that the number of young people planning on going into higher education has fallen slightly.

Lib Dems popularity plummets

The rush for places comes amid news that support for Britain’s Liberal Democrat Party has slumped to its lowest level in more than a decade, as voters punish the coalition partner for its U-turn on promises to oppose higher university fees.

A so-called poll of polls for the Independent newspaper on Wednesday found support for the Lib Dems had sunk to its lowest level since the party was formed in 1988.

Only 11 per cent of people would vote for the Lib Dems if an election was called now, according to the survey.

The party received 24 per cent of the vote in last May’s election.

About 40 per cent of people would vote for Labour Party and 38 per cent for Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives.

The Lib Dems pledged to oppose moves to raise university tuition fees, but then reversed their stance.

The poll of polls survey is a weighted average of regular surveys by ComRes, ICM, Ipsos MORI and YouGov.

Students end month-long sit-in

Meanwhile, a group of students today plan to end their four-week long occupation of a university building in protest at rises in tuition fees and education cuts.

The students have been staging a sit-in at the Senate building at the University of Kent in Canterbury since December 8 and remained there throughout Christmas and New Year.

University officials were attempting to regain control of the building by seeking a possession order at a hearing at Canterbury County Court on Friday.

But the students plan to leave the building peacefully at 2pm this afternoon, saying they felt they had done enough to highlight their cause.

One of the occupiers, 20-year-old philosophy student Ben Stevenson, said: “We are still very much in dispute with the university and we will be continuing our campaigning once we are out.”

The students want the university and its vice-chancellor Julia Goodfellow to condemn the Government’s plans publicly.

Their occupation was a reaction to Prof Goodfellow signing a letter, published in the Daily Telegraph on December 8, endorsing a rise in tuition fees.

Prof Goodfellow has since written an open letter in which she said she deplored cuts to higher education funding, but the students said this did not meet their demands.