The 2023/24 cycle is far from closed, with students continuing to trickle through Clearing, but what are the numbers telling us so far? We used UCAS’s Daily Clearing Analysis Tool to identify trends 12 days post-Clearing compared to the same point in the cycle last year.
Overall placed students are up 1% YOY. UCAS are on a journey to a million applicants by 2023 driven largely by the rise in the population of 18-year olds but is this being reflected in the numbers now?
Credit: UCAS, Journey to a million
Acceptance route:
Overall Clearing placed numbers are up 1.47% YOY but there is a drop in placed via Clearing with more students getting their firm choice acceptance this year. Direct-to-Clearing however has increased 16.61% suggesting that lots of students will have potentially started their accommodation research very late.
Domicile:
International accepted students have dropped 0.92% YOY whilst domestic students have increased by 1.49%.
In our Supply & Demand report released in May 24, we took a deep dive into international markets which highlighted:
- Changes to visas and local economy have seen -46% reduction in applications from Nigeria
- Visa have also impacted Indian applicants with 4% decline
- Applicants from China have increased by 3%, but, if we take a look back to 2022 applications from this market, appear to be plateauing
- Indonesian and Turkish applicants are significantly on the rise
The domestic market took a big swing from being 1% down on applications ahead of Clearing to being 1% up in accepted applicants 12 days after results day. This suggests higher degrees of success in matching students to places. This is confirmed by the highest ever proportions of students getting into their firm/first choice place and backed up by more students getting accepted via Clearing.
For the student accommodation market, this suggests that it's increasingly important to engage early and be the choice of accommodation that's aligned to a student's firm choice of university, rather than hoping to pick up lots of extra students over the summer. Longer term, reputation-led relationships with potential residents will lead to more secure bookings and conversion.
There is certainly no need to panic just yet about international students and the UK remains a highly regarded destination for higher education, but, with domestic numbers on the rise, do you need to do more to cater to this market?
Mature students:
Placed mature student numbers have dropped by 3.77% YOY which is unlikely to pose too much of a threat to the PBSA market. Mature students may be more likely to study at home or live in HMO or BTR.
In our Supply & Demand report earlier this year, we reported that applications from 18 year olds had plateaued with 0.7% increase. However, placed 18 year olds have increased 3% YOY which paints a more positive picture for those with 18 year olds a core demographic.
Free school meals:
Placed students declaring free school meals have increased by 16.31% YOY. It's great to see Higher Education becoming more accessible to disadvantaged students — a testament to the work universities and UCAS have done in this space.
In our article Affordability: Perception Vs Reality, we shared that UCAS estimated 47% of students declaring free school meals last cycle lived at home, with 53% expected to live in rented accommodation.
The question remains, are enough PBSA operators offering affordable accommodation for this market?
Summary:
Overall numbers are looking positive with no major causes for concern but can accommodation providers be doing more to appeal to the wider market and better prepare themselves for its fluctuations and variables?
We think the answer is yes and here are two ways we can support you:
- Manage your StudentCrowd profile: provide more user-friendly content, engage directly with students through responding to reviews and questions and demonstrate a positive student experience.
- Insight & Analysis Tool: knowing the ins and outs of your market is an integral part of good decision making. Combine our operational data to understand the competitive landscape in detail with student review data to understand what is driving satisfaction amongst different demographics.
