7 things you need to know about 2024’s university applicants

The Unite Students Applicant Index is the only research that tracks university applicants’ attitudes and confidence levels year on year, giving you the information you need to prepare for their arrival in autumn.

The 2024 report is out now. So, here’s everything you need to know about the Applicant Index – and seven things you’ll want to know about this year’s incoming student cohort.

The Higher Education sector has access to a wealth of data on students. HEPI/Advance HE’s Student Academic Experience Survey explores students’ university experience and sentiment annually; the Global Student Living Index looks at the student living experience throughout the year across four continents. Piecing together data and trends from research like this, we can make educated guesses about what we might expect from future student cohorts.

But the world is ever-changing, shaping each new generation of young people in a slightly different way, and year-on-year nuances have been thrown into sharper relief by the pandemic. Guessing may no longer be enough to meet the needs of each new student cohort. Surveys after arrival are useful, but getting things right in the first six weeks is crucial to the student experience as most students adjust to independent living and a new city for the first time.

Universities and accommodation providers need to understand each year’s incoming student body before they arrive at university. And that’s why three years ago, in partnership with HEPI, we launched the Unite Students Applicant Index – the only research to give each year’s applicants a voice as they prepare for university life.

Unlike our standalone applicant surveys in 2017, 2019 and 2021, the Index tracks changes in applicant attitudes and confidence each year across nine consistent themes, whose responses are combined to create composite scores. We also ask questions about topical issues in the sector, which might change from year to year; this year, these included school absences, where applicants have learned life skills and what alternatives to university they had considered. Survey data is weighted to reflect the overall applicant population – including this year, for the first time, a representative sample of international applicants.

You can download the full report now from our website, but if you need a quick overview of this year’s findings, we’ve pulled out seven key findings.

1. This year’s university applicants are more confident in their employability skills

Scores were up across the board on when it came to employability confidence. 4 in 10 are very confident they’ll get the job they want after graduation, a six percentage point increase on last year.

That could be because 70% of applicants have already undertaken paid work – up from 68% last year. Applicants who have already worked are more likely to think they’ll have enough money to cover their costs at university.

2. But learning confidence has dropped significantly from previous years

This year’s Learning score has dropped by 3 points from last year – the largest change we’ve seen since the Index launched in 2022. But why?

One factor could be the significant percentage of applicants that had missed school for mental health reasons since the pandemic. Last year, 3 in 10 applicants had missed school for this reason – but this year, it’s risen further to 36% among all applicants. Some demographics had a much higher rate of absence: 81% of all trans applicants agreed that they had missed school because of their mental health.

Many applicants expect this to continue into their time at university, with 15% saying they believed they would miss lectures due to their mental health.

3. There are major differences between socioeconomic groups

This year, we have data on applicants’ social grade, a standard measure that is used by the Office for National Statistics, and this has shown up some substantial gaps between applicants from different socioeconomic backgrounds.

These were most stark when it came to social factors: applicants from the least affluent households were 25 percentage points less likely than the most affluent applicants to say they had good relationships with family and friends, and – perhaps as a result – 32 percentage points more likely to agree they often felt lonely. They were also less likely to expect to feel welcome at university.

4. International applicants have a higher sense of wellbeing than UK applicants – for the most part

Wellbeing scores dropped dramatically after the pandemic and have been slow to recover since. This year, they’re back to pre-pandemic levels – but, instead of a happier applicant population across the board, this increase can be attributed to the increased number of international applicants who were surveyed.

This may have influenced other differences between international and domestic applicants too. For example, international applicants are more confident that they will feel welcome – and that they’ll belong – at university.

While 57% of international applicants expect to feel a sense of culture shock when they arrive at university, this is only 11 percentage points higher than the proportion of UK applicants that felt the same way.

But there are some exceptions. More than half of international applicants think they will struggle to keep up with others on their course, while a majority of Chinese applicants  say that they feel ashamed.

5. More applicants have a disability than in previous years

1 in 20 applicants reported having a physical impairment or mobility issues this year – an increase of two percentage points on last year, and a fivefold increase since 2017.

This suggests that, increasingly, applicants with disabilities are getting the support they need to continue with their education at school and college level, and that they’re confident they’ll get it at university too. It’s a good news story – but it’s vital that universities and accommodation providers meet those expectations, and that community events are as accessible as possible.

6. The pandemic has had a lasting effect on this cohort

We asked applicants to describe in their own words how the Covid-19 pandemic had impacted their lives since 2020 (if at all), and there was a common theme of loss in the comments.

This included a loss of learning skills and experience. “I feel that I was not able to gain exam skills and various other school skills during my GCSE exams which then reflected and transferred to my A-Levels,” wrote one applicant.

Many respondents also spoke about feeling less comfortable socialising since the pandemic, and this was reflected in a drop in applicants’ overall social confidence this year. This could have implications for residence life teams and the ease of building a student community within accommodation, though applicants’ appetite to be part of a community at university remains high.

7. Motivations for going to university have changed a lot over the last five years

Last asked in a standalone applicant survey in 2019, one question we’ve revived for 2024 asks applicants why they’ve decided to go to university. Just as we’ve seen dramatic changes in the world over the past five years, there have been major shifts in the factors driving young people to apply for university.

While ‘interest in my chosen subject’ remains one of the most common motivator, it’s down 17 percentage points from 2019. However, ‘moving away from home’ is a more popular answer than it was five years ago – perhaps due to applicants’ experiences of lockdown. The expectations of others are also playing a greater role in applicants’ decision to apply to university, with more applicants picking ‘my family expects it’ and ‘my school or college expects it’ as one of their top three motivators than previously.

For more insights about this year’s university applicants, download the 2024 Applicant Index now.