Over two-thirds of law applicants are female

UCAS data shows almost one in ten of all applications are for law

Over two-thirds of all law course applicants this academic year are female, according to data sourced from university admissions service UCAS.

Some 69% (107,085) of law applicants in 2021 were women, compared with just 31% (48,065) of men.

The number of female applicants across all law-related courses has been steadily increasing for years. Comparing the data to a decade ago, male applications have only risen by about 2%, compared to a 41% jump in female applications.

Law courses made up 9% of all applications submitted to UCAS in 2021, with almost one in ten applicants applying for law-related courses, whether single or combined.

Speaking to the BBC ahead of applications opening last year, UCAS chief Clare Marchant said there has been “more attraction to courses which have an obvious career path”, such as law.

The UCAS data, collated by criminal defence firm Lawtons, further shows almost half of all students applying to study law in the UK are from outside of the EU while EU applicants dropped by 40% in the last year.

EU student numbers fell from 22,255 in 2020 to 13,145 in 2021, due in part to pandemic-induced border controls and Brexit complications, according to the analysis.