Spending by UK universities on marketing campaigns has increased by 22 per cent, while the University of Cambridge spends nothing on advertising to undergraduates, it has been revealed.

According to a Times Higher Education investigation, spending on marketing grew to an average of £455,461 per institution in the academic year from 2011-12. Total expenditure rose to £31.9 million from £26.1 million in the previous year. The report found that out of the 70 universities that responded in the investigation, the University of Cambridge was one of three universities – together with the University of Oxford and the University of St Andrews – to spend nothing on advertising to students.

A spokesman for the University suggested that choices made by prospective applicants are still influenced largely by reputation: “The University does not need to spend money on advertising: we have a strong identity and benefit from a global reputation as a centre of educational excellence.” However, the spokesman did add that the University spends large sums on access schemes: "The collegiate University invests around £2.7 million a year in a wide range of outreach initiatives across the UK designed to identify and engage with students from under-represented groups, and encourage them to apply.”

Cambridge Judge Business School does however advertise its postgraduate courses. Professor Jaideep Prabhu, Head of Marketing at the Judge Business School, said: "We have to make a difference between the graduate and the undergraduate programmes. We don’t spend money on advertising for undergraduate programmes but we advertise the graduate programmes such as the MBA programmes, the Master in Finance and the executive MBA programmes. It is a competitive market – the purpose is to inform students of our programme and marketing is one way to differentiate ourselves." The rest of the University does not have an advertising budget, a spokesman confirmed.

Although applications to the University of Cambridge rose by 2.3 per cent in 2011-12, the overall number of undergraduate applications to UK universities fell by 7.4 per cent despite the rise in advertising spending. At the University of Oxford, one of the other universities reported to have spent nothing on marketing, the number of applicants fell slightly by 0.6 per cent. Figures show that the 20 universities with the greatest percentage increases in spending still saw applications fall by an average of 5.6 per cent.

Speaking to Times Higher Education, Paul Temple, co-director of the Centre for Higher Education Studies at the Institute of Education, suggested that the rise in spending on marketing was a reaction to the introduction of higher tuition fees. 30 of the questioned universities said their expenditure on marketing would increase further in 2012-13.

Critics have argued that as the overall number of places on undergraduate courses is capped, a spending arms race is a "zero-sum" game for the sector.