Demand rises for IT-related university courses

Increase in applications to study tech subjects at higher education on last year

The governemnt wants to encourage the uptake of IT-related subjects

University application service Ucas has reported a rise in applications for technology-related subjects as general demand for higher education has skyrocketed.

The service received a total of 570,556 applications for full-time undergraduate study for 2010/11 by 22 January, a rise of 106,389 or 22.9 per cent over last year’s figures.

Subjects such as computer science received 47,249 applications, an increase of 18.9 per cent on 2009, information systems attracted 12,180 candidates (up 26.5 per cent), while 6,393 hopefuls applied for software engineering careers, an increase of 27.7 per cent on last year’s numbers.

Last week, business secretary Lord Mandelson announced £10m in extra funding to support universities “shift the balance” towards the teaching of technology, science and maths, which the government is now keen to promote.