UNIVERSITY APPLICATIONS from Scottish candidates have fallen faster than those from any other part of the UK.

UCAS has announced that there has been a 17 per cent drop in applications in Scotland.

Applications from Scottish school leavers to English universities have declined from 1871 at this point last year to 1513 this year, almost 20 per cent lower, and applications to Scottish institutions are down by 16 per cent, from 4829 last year to 4048 this year.

There has also been a drop of a 7.6 per cent in English students applying to study in Scotland.

The drop, is higher than the UK average, and it has been proposed that this is due to the fact that the average fees in Scotland are higher than in the rest of the UK. Scottish students will continue to study for free if they choose to remain in Scotland.

This follows a similar announcement in England, and all will come into effect on August 1 2012.

These changes have drawn criticism from a number of sources, including NUS president Robin Parker, who stated that the change will damage the higher education system. He said, “We cannot accept the excesses we’ve seen from some Scottish principals for this coming year, with mortgage-level degree costs and no protection for widening access for students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.”

Scottish Education Secretary Mike Russell was also critical of university fees decisions. He told the Scottish Parliament’s education committee last week that, “I don’t agree with what they did and they know I don’t agree with what they did. There should have been greater restraint.”

He said that he is “diametrically opposed” to the changes, believing that education should ideally be free.

Aside from students, he also mentioned the potential effects on the universities, namely that this will greatly impact their application numbers.

“They could have disadvantaged themselves. They have the most Rest of UK (RUK) students at present, but we don’t know the outcome. It could be that the pattern of RUK students could change because of this.”

Currently the universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh are the most popular in Scotland with outside students, attracting 40 per cent of all applications between them. He said he hoped to introduce legislation in the new year which would help widen access to higher education and said he had not given up on finding a Scottish solution to the “flawed” funding arrangements brought in by Westminster.

While neither university has officially responded to the statistics, the University of St Andrews has announced that its applications from RUK students went up this year by 17.5 per cent and applications from Scottish students increased by 12 per cent.

However, the fee changes were not decided during the application period.

Russell also connected the fall in Scottish applications to the fees, saying that the “noise” around them would worry applicants.

Stressing that the Scottish Parliament should act more independently and should have found a different way to solve the problems, Russell stated “I don’t want our policy on higher education to be set in perpetuity in response to what I think is a flawed policy south of the Border.”