The final figures for university entrance show that student numbers are increasing - but there has been a slight fall in applications.

Statistics for the 1999-2000 academic year show a 1.5% increase in the numbers of students entering higher education and a 0.8% fall in applications.

The total number of applications reached 442,931, with 334,594 of these finding places.

The figures from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service also show that business management courses and computer science have remained the most popular subjects.

"The rise in new students is largely due to a big increase in the number of young people taking up places," said the UCAS chief executive, Tony Higgins.

But the number of full-time mature students shows another slight reduction, although Mr Higgins says that the figure is so close to last year's that it refutes predictions that many mature students would be deterred by the introduction of tuition fees.

Fall in Scotland

Within subject areas, the largest increases in student numbers have been in nursing (24%), computer science (15%), cinematics (24%) and sport science (14%).

Traditional arts subjects such as English and history remain popular (in sixth and tenth place respectively).

But student numbers have fallen for physics, engineering and electronic engineering courses.

Other trends revealed in this breakdown of applications show that while more students are entering university in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, there has been a 2.3% fall in new students in Scotland.

The highest increase has been in Northern Ireland, where numbers are up by 7.9%, which UCAS says also includes a higher number staying to study within Northern Ireland, rather than attending universities elsewhere in the United Kingdom.