New figures released by the Universities and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) have shown that the number of university admissions is back at the pre-2011 level.

That year, new legislation came into force which altered the way that universities were funded, allowing them to charge up to £9,000 per year to new students on some courses. This led to a dramatic one-off rise in the number of university applications, as students sought to avoid paying an extra £6,000 per year in tuition costs.

The figures published by UCAS show that admissions to British universities from students across the UK and EU stood at 446,000 for 2013, a nine per cent rise on the 2012 figure. There had been a significant drop in the number of applicants in 2012, which is thought to be a result of the rise in tuition fees.

Indeed, the rise appears to have taken some universities by surprise. The University of York faces a fine of £500,000 after accepting more students than permitted for courses starting this year.

The increase in applications occurred across the UK including Scotland, where the government voted to scrap tuition fees in 2007. However, there was a continued fall in the number of Scottish students studying at universities in England and Wales, with just 1,540 – fewer than six per cent – opting to study south of the border.

Cambridge received 16,145 applications this year, which was the highest level for five years. This year’s number of applications is 4.9 per cent higher than the figure for 2011 – the last year of lower tuition fees – suggesting that the popularity of Cambridge applications is immune from changes in government policy.’

The increase in the number of student applications has been widely hailed by universities. There had been fears that the tripling of tuition fees would put off students from underprivileged backgrounds from applying to university, despite government claims that new measures would ensure that the poorest would not be disadvantaged by the change. Cambridge’s intake of state school students in 2012 was up 7.6 per cent from 2011.

The rise in tuition fees has, however, had knock on effects elsewhere in the education system. Figures released this year show that the number of British children joining independent schools fell by 0.4 per cent to under 500,000. This is the fourth year that enrolment has declined, suggesting that some better-off parents are choosing to focus their funds on their children’s higher rather than secondary education.