The 2021 Q1 Knight Frank report shares their insight into the application and enrolment trends likely to affect purpose-built student housing and makes for positive reading, despite the pandemic. More than 728,000 students applied to start a full-time undergraduate course at UK universities for the 2020/21 academic year. This was nearly 22,500 more applicants than the previous year and only the second year-on-year increase in applications in the last five years. A record 41% of all 18-year-olds in the UK applied for a full-time undergraduate course, while there was also a surge in the number of applications from outside of the UK, which climbed 7.5% on 2019 levels. In total, just over a fifth (21%) of all applicants in 2020/21 were from outside the UK. There are early indications that student demand will rise again for the 2021/22 academic year, with January deadline data pointing to an 8.4% increase in applications compared with at the same point in the previous cycle. The rise is the highest comparable year-on year increase since 2010 and was driven predominantly by an increase in UK applicants, which are 11.6% higher than last year. Assuming current levels of participation continue, this will drive domestic demand, with UCAS predicting it will result in 90,000 additional UK applicants by 2025.
