Law course applications fall to just above UK average

University applications to study law dropped 5.2 per cent with only 13,139 applicants this year compared with 13,858 last year.

While significant, the fall was less than the 7.9 per cent average drop experienced across the board, a 30-year low according to figures published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) on Monday.

Two subject groups went up: veterinary and agriculture (5.1 per cent) and combined sciences (one per cent).

Only medicine, physics, mathematics, engineering and linguistics fared better than law (-3.1, -1.6, -2.6, -3.1 and -1.7 respectively).

Among the subject groups that suffered most were: communications (-40.6 per cent), education (-30 per cent), arts and design (-27.1 per cent), business studies (-26 per cent), technologies (-22.7 per cent) and social studies (-22.1 per cent).

All disciplines combined, the segment most affected was mature applicants (over 30), whose numbers plummeted by more than 25 per cent.

In comparison, applicants of ordinary university age (18) only went down by 2.4 per cent.

More women gave up on university degrees than men (-10.5 per cent and -7 per cent respectively).

Looking at the geographical spread of applicants, UK-based individuals were the most affected (-11.9 per cent), followed by EU applicants (-9.3 per cent).

The number of applicants from Hong Kong shot up by 34.4 per cent while Australasia went up by 22.2 per cent, and non-EU Europe 11.2 per cent.

UCAS collected data from 26 universities, 15 of which reported a decline in applications. The data available is anonymous at this stage.

UCAS 2012 application figures