GTI blog

It won’t have gone unnoticed that this year the scramble for university places is more intense than ever. UCAS have revealed that overall applications rose by 1.4% from 2010 figures, as school leavers sought to guarantee themselves a place at university before the introduction of the fee increases beginning in 2011/12. With the prospect of paying up to £9,000 a year for university tuition, those who hadn’t landed the course of their choice were ever more frantically trying to resolve their situation through clearing – on Monday almost 190,000 applicants eligible for clearing had yet to find a place.

Although successful students will not be approaching the graduate market for some time, there are already clear signs of changes taking place within the graduate market as a result of increased fees and demand. The launch of Ernst & Young’s school leaver programme means that all of the Big 4 now has school-leaver entry schemes in place. These afford students more flexibility providing a source of funding throughout their study as well as the attractive prospect of a graduate role.

Demand for school-leaver schemes, whilst already high, is likely to increase as the burden of graduate debt grows with an ever more competitive graduate market. Consequently more school leaver programmes could well emerge and inevitably these will become increasingly popular amongst those looking to secure a graduate role as soon as possible.