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Nearly one in five degree courses has been scrapped since the tripling of tuition fees to ￡9,000-a-year, it has been revealed. Universities are concentrating on popular subjects and dropping courses that have too few applicants or are too expensive to run. Official figures show acull of more than 2,600 in the number of courses available to applicants planning to start their degrees in 2013. More than 5,200 courses had already been removed for students beginning this year - the first cohort to face the higher fees.
Universities dumped some of the courses even after prospectuses went online earlier this year and in some cases after applications began, according to reports yesterday. News of the closures come as UCAS figures published last week showed that the number of students in England applying for university places in 2013 has plunged by almost 10 percent already. Numbers of EU and non-EU students applicants have also dropped. The scrapped courses range from archeology at Birmingham to languages at Salford and London Metropolitan. Birmingham had announced six weeks ago that single honours archeology would no longer be offered because ‘it has proved unable to attract sufficient applicants of the appropriate quality’. The number of courses listed by UCAS has fallen from 43,360 to 35,501 in two years. Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said: ‘The UK’s global academic reputation is built on the broad range of subjects. ‘While government rhetoric is about students as consumers, the choices have narrowed.’据透露，自从英国大学学费上涨到原来的三倍，达到一年9000英镑，已有近五分之一的学位课程被削减掉。 大学将重心放在受欢迎的学科上，砍掉那些报名人数少或开课费用太昂贵的学科。 官方数据显示，英国大学将精选出2600余门课程供那些计划2013年开始攻读学位的报考者选择。 第一批共同面临更高学费的学生可修的课程已经被削减了5200多门。 根据昨日发布的报告，英国大学甚至今年早些时候在网上发布了课程简介之后，以及在招生工作开始之后，又削减掉了部分课程。 在课程削减消息发布的同时，大学入学申请办事处上周公布的数据显示，2013年申请大学的英国学生人数已经减少了近10%。 欧盟和非欧盟成员国的学生申请英国大学的人数也有所下降。 被削掉的课程涵盖了从伯明翰大学的考古学，到索福尔德大学和伦敦城市大学的语言课程等各类课程。 伯明翰大学六周前宣布考古学不再颁发单科荣誉学位，因为“经证实该学科已不再能吸引足够多的合格报考者”。 大学入学申请办事处列出的课程数量在两年内从43360门减少到35501门。 英国高校联合会的总秘书长萨莉?亨特说：“英国在全球的学术声誉是建立在广博的科目基础之上的。 “虽然政府把学生称作消费者，但是学生的选择面变窄了。” |
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