Almost seven students are competing for each place at elite universities in the UK this year amid warnings that record numbers of straight-A candidates will be rejected, write Graeme Paton and Andrew Hough for The Daily Telegraph. Research by the newspaper suggests that applications for degree courses have soared by as much as a third at some institutions, despite a strict cap on the number of new places.

The scramble to get into university is being fuelled by the lack of jobs in the economic downturn coupled with cuts in the higher education budget which academics warn is placing a huge squeeze on places.

Some of Britain's top universities are warning that it will be increasingly difficult to select the best applicants from record numbers applying with three As at A-level. For the first time this year, elite A* grades will be awarded to the very brightest sixth-formers. But only a quarter of universities responding to a Telegraph survey confirmed they would be using it as part of the applications process.
Full report on The Telegraph site

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