Starting in September, tuition fees for England’s universities are due to triple to a maximum of £9,000. Likely in response to this sharp hike, the number of university applicants has slumped by 10%. According to the Universities & Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), about 1 in 20 English 18-year-olds–about 15,000 students in total–expected to apply to university this year did not. However, per UCAS’ Mary Curnock Cook, ”This in-depth analysis of the 2012 applications data shows that, although there has been a reduction in application rates where tuition fees have increased, there has not been a disproportionate effect on more disadvantaged groups … ”The 10% decline in applications to English institutions reported in regular UCAS statistics is more properly interpreted as a reduced young application rate of about 5% after correcting for falling populations.”