University places: NI has highest share of university starters in UK

Northern Ireland had a higher proportion of young people starting university in 2019 than England, Scotland or Wales.

That is according to figures released by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

In 2019, 35.7% of 18-year-olds started an undergraduate course in Northern Ireland - up 0.5% on the previous year.

UCAS handles the vast majority of admissions to higher education in the UK.

According to UCAS, nine in every 10 students accepted to start university in Northern Ireland in 2019 were local students.

However, Queen's University has warned it has only 60 places available for every 100 applicants from Northern Ireland, according to its report for the 2018-19 academic year, which has just been published.

"An independent study commissioned by the university found that 60% of demand for university places from students in NI is being met locally," the report said.

"Therefore, more than 13,000 Northern Ireland students are pursuing their studies in other parts of the UK."

Queen's said that, by contrast, there were 90 places available in Scotland for every 100 Scottish applicants to university.

It also said that in England and Wales there was a surplus of places for students from those countries.

Meanwhile, the number of international students at Queen's rose by 11% to 2,619 in 2018-19.

As a result tuition fee income from international students at Queen's rose to almost £36m from £31.5m in 2017-18 - an increase of 14%.

International students normally pay much higher tuition fees than the £4,275 per year paid by local students.

However, the vice-chancellor of Queen's said that the lack of sustainable university funding in Northern Ireland was a "particular problem".

Prof Ian Greer made the comments in his introduction to the annual report.

It is in spite of the fact the university's income rose to £372m in 2018-19 from £358m in 2017-18.

That led to a surplus of £8.8m before tax and pension costs in 2018-19.

However, the annual report said that the university had continued to be hit with a real-terms reduction in its funding from the Department for the Economy (DfE).

Queen's received just over £101m in government grants in 2018-19 compared to just under £100m the previous year.

The report said that core government funding for teaching and research for the current academic year would be the same as 2018-19, and that this represented a real-terms reduction of 2%.

"In 2019-20 current funding from DfE is equivalent to that received in 2012-13," it said.

"Between 2009-10 and 2018-19 the annual block grant allocation from government to the NI universities has reduced by £34m.

"This equates to 16% in cash terms and 30% in real terms.

"NI is the only region in the UK which has reduced higher education investment in recent years.

"This funding shortfall creates a serious competitive disadvantage for the university against comparative UK institutions.

"The implications of the under-investment in NI is clearly a matter of concern."