Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department holds data on the number of university students who have deferred their studies since the beginning of the 2020-21 academic year.

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) have published data on the number of deferrals during the 2020 applications cycle.

The latest data, as at 10 September 2020, can be found on UCAS’s website at: https://www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/undergraduate-statistics-and-reports/statistical-releases-daily-clearing-analysis-2020.

This shows that, at this point, 25,520 of all UK applicants placed at UK higher education providers had deferred their place, which equates to 5.8% of all placed applicants. This is a 0.1 percentage point increase on the previous year; at the same point in the previous applications cycle (2019), 5.7% of all placed UK applicants had deferred their place.

Applicant data by deferral status for all domiciles can be found at the link provided.

Final figures from UCAS will be published at the end of the year.