Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many unconditional offers have been made by universities to school and college leavers in each year since 2010; and in each of those years, what percentage of total offers were unconditional.
Applicants to full-time undergraduate degrees apply through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). UCAS have published data on the number of unconditional offers and the proportion of offers made that were unconditional since 2010. The data covers offers made to 18 year olds from England, Northern Ireland and Wales.
The table shows the number of unconditional offers made and the proportion of offers made that were unconditional to 18 year old applicants from England, Northern Ireland, and Wales.
Year | Number of unconditional offers | Proportion of offers made that were unconditional |
2010 | 5,105 | 0.6% |
2011 | 3,355 | 0.4% |
2012 | 2,605 | 0.3% |
2013 | 2,985 | 0.4% |
2014 | 12,115 | 1.4% |
2015 | 23,410 | 2.5% |
2016 | 36,825 | 3.9% |
2017 | 51,615 | 5.3% |
2018 | 67,915 | 7.1% |
Source: UCAS End of Cycle reports 2017 and 2018:
https://www.ucas.com/file/196151/download?token=jzRAy4kS.
https://www.ucas.com/file/140406/download?token=pfzLAKRe.
Notes
Information regarding which universities allocated places to applicants on an unconditional basis and for each of those universities, what percentage of total offers were unconditional in each of those years is not held centrally.
However, on 31 January UCAS published data on unconditional offers by each provider for the first time as part of their 2018 End of Cycle data releases. For each provider, UCAS have published data on the number and proportion of offers that were unconditional, conditional unconditional, and offers that had an unconditional component since 2013. Further information can be found at: https://www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/undergraduate-statistics-and-reports/ucas-undergraduate-end-cycle-reports/2018-ucas-undergraduate-unconditional-offer-making-provider-reports – then select ‘Individual 2018 provider level unconditional offer-making CSVs’.
The government are concerned by the increase in unconditional offers, and have asked the higher education (HE) regulator, the Office for Students (OfS), to monitor and review how they are being used by HE providers. Where institutions cannot justify the rising numbers being offered we have made clear to the OfS that they should use the full range of powers at their disposal to take action.