Crippling university fees have fuelled a dramatic 25% increase in the number of students signing up for Higher Education courses at Leeds College of Building, a senior lecturer claims.
“We’re experiencing high demand across all our Higher Education courses as students look for a viable alternative to university study,” said college principal Ian Billyard. “Many school and college leavers previously saw university as the natural next step, but having to pay costly tuition fees has encouraged many to explore alternative options.”
With the average full-time degree course now costing £9,000 a year, university is proving a much less popular choice among school-leavers. Last month CM reported that construction-related degrees starting this autumn had dropped 21.5% to 10,323 compared to last year, according to university applications service UCAS.
That compares to a more modest general drop across all subject areas of 7.7% and a 16.3% drop when construction courses are aggregated with architecture, landscape design and planning degrees.
