Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of UK students who will seek places at UK universities in each of the next five years.

Since education policy is a devolved matter, the department has not made an estimate of the overall number of UK students who will be seeking places at UK universities.

UCAS has stated that they expect the number of UK and overseas applicants to reach one million by the academic year 2026/27. This forecast is independent from the department and yet to be published in detail, but was mentioned in the UCAS publication titled Public Accounts Committee - Financial sustainability of the higher education sector in England (page 3), which can be accessed here: https://www.ucas.com/file/584491/download?token=IydiELPF.