A more effective protest against tuition fees continued

So it seems I need some Statistics to see whether what I suggested in my previous blog is realistic.

Out of 639,860 applicants 95,575 were not from the UK i.e. either from other EU or non-EU countries.
Out of 639,860 applicants 481,854 were accepted
Out of 639,860 applicants 367,870 were from UK further education (FE) colleges and state schools and 176,415 were from UK grammar, independent and other schools (and the rest were non-UK applicants)

Let us assume that the numbers of non-UK applicants remains the same and so do those from grammar, independent and other schools. This totals 271,990 applicants. Therefore if no students from FE colleges and state schools applied then the universities would be faced with 209,864 more places than applicants. No applicants from FE colleges and state schools does seem unrealistic. For there to be equal numbers of applicants to places 57% of the FE college and state school applicants would need to apply. So is it realistic for 158,184 people from FE colleges and State schools not to apply?

If there are equal applicants to places then for the places to be filled everyone that applies has to be accepted. Assuming that those that were not accepted in 2009 meant that the applicant was below par then at least 79,705 below par applicants would have to be accepted to fill places. I say at least this number as in this statistic I have not included any of the possible below par FE college and State school applicants.

So it seems as though my original hopeful figure of a protest leading to third of places not being filled does seems a little unrealistic but maybe a situation where places are only just filled may well bring the same ridicule to the governments plans.

The statistics were sources from UCAS's 2009 Higher Education statistics http://www.ucas.ac.uk/about_us/stat_services/

Original blog http://leon-blogs.blogspot.com/2010/11/more-effective-protest-against-tuition.html