Exclusive: Most university subjects reporting a drop
The number of UCAS applications made to study law this year has increased by 5,410 since last year. This is more than any other course, both in percentage and real number terms.
As of UCAS deadline day this year (24 March), 130,640 applications were made to study law. This is up by 4.3% on 2016, when 125,230 forms were submitted. Note this is the number of applications, not applicants, and that applicants can make up to five applications per UCAS cycle.
Two other courses, maths and architecture, reported similar but slightly lower increases of 3.6% and 4.1% respectively. Two more courses, social studies (3%) and computer sciences (1%), experienced small rises too, while the number of applications to mass communications and documentation stayed the same.
For the other courses, all 14 of them, application numbers dropped. The starkest of all was for subjects allied to medicine (-15%), though technologies experienced a pretty sharp decrease (-12%) too.
This was also the case across all five joint honours subjects, which are considered separately from UCAS’s 20 single honours courses. Combined arts experienced a 9% drop in applications, as did sciences combined with social sciences or arts. Combined sciences applications took a 7% tumble.
2016 and 2017 university applications by course:
| Subject | Apps (2016) | Apps (2017) | % difference |
| Medicine and dentistry | 85,650 | 82,380 | -4% |
| Subjects allied to medicine | 377,960 | 321,790 | -15% |
| Biological sciences | 269,190 | 266,020 | -1% |
| Veterinary science | 28,970 | 27,680 | -4% |
| Physical sciences | 105,150 | 102,990 | -2% |
| Maths | 47,750 | 49,510 | 4% |
| Engineering | 159,420 | 156,280 | -2% |
| Computer sciences | 120,120 | 121,080 | 1% |
| Technologies | 8,280 | 7,310 | -12% |
| Architecture | 40,780 | 42,450 | 4% |
| Social studies | 232,060 | 239,300 | 3% |
| Law | 125,230 | 130,640 | 4% |
| Business studies | 318,680 | 309,380 | -3% |
| Mass communications and documentation | 61,890 | 62,130 | 0% |
| Linguistics | 62,660 | 59,250 | -5% |
| European languages | 18,230 | 16,930 | -7% |
| Non-European languages | 5,520 | 5,190 | -6% |
| History and philosophy | 81,040 | 74,610 | -8% |
| Creative arts | 261,930 | 246,350 | -6% |
| Education | 86,730 | 86,210 | -1% |
| Combined arts | 48,180 | 43,680 | -9% |
| Combined sciences | 30,980 | 28,810 | -7% |
| Combined social sciences | 31,380 | 30,620 | -2% |
| Sciences combined with social sciences or arts | 56,820 | 51,550 | -9% |
| Social sciences combined with arts | 47,780 | 47,000 | -2% |
Data in table via UCAS.
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