UCU reacts to latest UCAS figures

UCU said the final picture could be even worse with thousands of late applicants expected to apply over the summer and warned that the UK was facing a huge skills deficit in the future.
 
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Today's figures make frightening reading. Other countries are increasing the number of graduates to compete in a high-skill knowledge economy, yet our government seems intent on doing the opposite. It is not scaremongering to talk about a lost generation of learners.
 
'It is disgraceful that thousands of applicants will be denied the chance to fulfil their potential at university. The decision not to fund student places properly and to make savage cuts to higher education will come back and haunt this country and will lead to a huge skills deficit. I am deeply worried that this government's policy seems to be to ration access to higher education through caps in numbers and proposals such as Vince Cable's tax on learning which will widen the education participation gap between the UK and our key competitors.'