Ucas: Fall in NI students accepted to university in 2022

Fewer students in Northern Ireland have been accepted to attend university this year

There has been a fall in the number of students from Northern Ireland accepted to start university in 2022 following the return of exams.

The figures have just been published by the University and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas).

They also indicate there are fewer undergraduate places available at NI universities for local students.

A higher proportion of 18-year-olds from NI still go to university than in any other part of the UK.

Just over four in 10 (40.7%) of 18-year-olds from Northern Ireland have started an undergraduate course in September, according to the Ucas data.

That is lower than the proportion who started university in 2021 or 2020, but much higher than 2019 - the previous year in which pupils sat exams.

Then, just over 35% of 18-year olds from Northern Ireland started an undergraduate degree.

Ucas had previously reported that a record proportion of 18-year-olds from Northern Ireland had applied to start university in 2022.

GCSE, AS and A-Level and BTEC exams were cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to disruption to schools caused by restrictions and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Grades for pupils were calculated by their schools, which to a rise in the top results.

Pupils received results in the summer after the first A-Level exams since 2019

The number of top A* and A grades awarded fell in 2022, following the return of exams, but results were still much higher than when exams were previously held in 2019.

In 2019 just over 30% of entries were awarded A* or A grades, compared to around 44% in 2022.

Overall, 13,650 Northern Ireland students had been accepted to start a university course by 22 September, 28 days after A-Level results day.

Over 8,000 of those were women and about 5,600 were men.

The university entry figures for 2022 are down from around 14,900 at the same stage in both 2020 and 2021.

The number of mature students - defined as those over 21 - starting university in 2022 has particularly declined.

According to UCAS about 1,750 mature students from Northern Ireland have started undergraduate degree courses in 2022, down from 2,200 in 2021.

Of the Northern Ireland students starting an undergraduate course in 2022, about 9,600 are going to a university in Northern Ireland, about 3,140 in England, 690 in Scotland and 220 in Wales.

The Ucas figures indicate that there were 9,600 places at Northern Ireland's universities for first-year Northern Ireland students in 2022.

That is similar to 2019, but is more than 1,000 fewer places than 2020 and 600 fewer than 2021.

Admissions limit

The number of students from Northern Ireland that Northern Ireland's universities can admit is capped.

The Maximum Aggregate Student Number (MASN) cap is set by the Department for the Economy and depends on how much funding is available from the department.

Universities can, however, recruit unlimited numbers of students from elsewhere in the UK and internationally.

Ucas oversees admissions to UK universities, so their data does not include Northern Ireland students who may have started university in the Republic of Ireland or elsewhere in the world.

According to separate figures previously released by the Irish Central Applications Office (CAO), about 650 students from Northern Ireland were accepted onto a third-level course in the Republic of Ireland in 2022, compared to 677 in 2021.