More women than men will be signing on in coming weeks

Figures from the admissions service Ucas show 511,669 people applied, up almost 8% on last year - perhaps due in part to pending top-up fees.

With few places yet to be allocated three quarters of them, 387,662, have been accepted onto courses, up 8.2%.

But 107,652 have failed to get in, which is 9.8% more than last year.

Fees effect?

Commentators attribute at least some of the increase in student numbers this year to the fact that "top-up" fees will apply from next year.

UCAS STATISTICS Applicants: 511,669 (+8%) Accepted: 387,662 (+8.2%) Decision pending: 8,272 (+2.9%) No offer/did not meet conditions/applied very late: 107,652 (+9.8%) Withdrawn: 8,083 (-16.6%)

These will take the cost of most full-time courses in England from �1,175 a year to �3,000, with various higher charges applying to some students in Wales and Scotland too.

And Ucas says the number of students accepting places now but deferring entry until 2006 - thus escaping the higher fees - has gone up 9%, from 25,908 to 28,238.

The increase among people living in England was 9.5%, to 288,843, with 8.2% more from Northern Ireland (to 13,748), 6.1% more from Wales (taking the total to 16,208) and a fall in Scottish students of 1.1% (to 26,494).

The biggest percentage growth in the student population is among people from EU countries outside the British Isles, up 18.7% overall to 13,401.

New EU members

Within that total the most noticeable changes are in the countries which joined the EU last year.

The biggest surge was from Lithuania, up 423.1% - although that took the total to only 272 students.

The largest "new EU" group numerically are people from Cyprus - 1,661 (up 32.2%) - with Poland accounting for 954, just over twice the number accepted last year.

Other overseas students - whose fees are not affected by the change - have gone up 2.8% to 22,983. The biggest change was in people from Nigeria, up three quarters to 3,041.

Chinese students still make up the single largest overseas contingent, 4,181, but that is down a fifth on last year.

Overseas students total more than 42,500, 7% more than last year and just over a tenth of all those accepted.

In keeping with the pattern of recent years there are more women overall than men - 53.8% (208,652) being female - although the percentage increase among both sexes was the same.

The figures remain provisional, and are compared with the same point in the application round last year.

They mostly relate to full-time first degree courses including diplomas of higher education, university diplomas and foundation degrees, with some social work postgraduate courses and part-time degrees.

Financial package

Higher Education Minister, Bill Rammell said: "Every year around 100,000 students who apply to university appear not to take up places for a variety of reasons. A failure to secure a place is just one of many contributors to this figure, and this year is no different from previous years".