Number of EU students applying to British universities drops for the first time in years
Admission figures fall could be linked to uncertainty over European students still receiving loans and grants following Brexit
THE number of EU students applying to study in Britain next autumn has dropped while UK applications rose, official figures showed yesterday.
It comes in the wake of the Brexit vote and uncertainty over whether EU students would be eligible for loans and grants.
The Ucas admission figures show a nine per cent fall in EU nationals applying for courses in medicine, dentistry and veterinary courses, as well as those applying to Oxford and Cambridge.
Overall, the number of UK students applying by October 15 rose by three per cent to 39,440.
But applications from EU students fell from 6,860 to 6,240 - ending a trend of annual increases in recent years.
Applicants from students in countries outside the EU rose by 1 per cent.
UCAS chief executive Mary Curnock Cook said: “We will be watching the numbers of EU applications in the run-up to the January deadline, especially now that the Government has confirmed arrangements for continuing access to student loans for 2017 courses.”
Ministers announced earlier this month - four days before the early application deadline - that students will be able to access funding for the duration of their degree.
This arrangement will be honoured even if the UK leaves the EU during this time.
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The number of English 18-year-olds applying to study medicine has also gone up by five per cent.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced plans to train up to 1,500 more doctors a year in a bid to make NHS England “self-sufficient” in doctors by the middle of the next decade.