The number of students applying to start university this autumn has fallen by almost nine per cent, figures showed today.

Staffordshire University received 2,000 fewer applications for 2012 than last year.

A rise in tuition fees is being blamed for the fall in university applications nationally. But Wolverhampton is bucking the national trend with the number of applications to the city’s university rising by five per cent. Figures show that the number of applicants have fallen from all parts of the UK.

However the West Midlands has seen the smallest drop in applicants in England – down 7.3 per cent.

In total, 462,507 people have applied for courses beginning in September, compared with 506,388 at this point last year – a drop of 8.7 per cent according to statistics published by Ucas.

Staffordshire University has received 15,771 applications for 2012, compared to 17,999 in 2011.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Michael Gunn said: “While our applications are lower than in 2011, we are extre-mely encouraged that they are more than 10 per cent higher than they were in 2010 and that we are still experiencing high demand.

“This, coupled with an in-crease in attendance at our open days, suggests that students are not overly conc-erned with the increase in University tuition fees.”

At Wolverhampton, applications rose from 18,282 last year to 19,269 in 2012 – the highest growth of any institution in the Midlands and the seventh highest growth of all English universities.

At Keele University in Staffordshire, there were 16,860 applications for 2012, compared to 18,026 last year.

Meanwhile at the University of Birmingham applications fell from 40,021 last year to 36,097 for 2012 and  Birmingham City University applications fell from 28,559 last year to 25,408 this year.

University             2011         2012
Staffordshire              17,999         15,771
Wolverhampton       18,282         19,269
Keele                              18,026        16,860
Birmingham                40,021        36,097
Birmingham City      28,559         25,408
Aston University      11,421         9 ,082