Will you be studying in Norfolk next year? University applications deadline looming

Former graduates from the College West Anglia at their graduation ceremony in King's Lynn. Picture: Archant

In October UCAS, the organisation which manages university applications, reported that a record number of people had applied for courses with an earlier deadline, such as medicine and veterinary science.

At the time the organisation's chief executive Clare Marchant said only around 10pc of the 2019 cohort had applied and that the true impact of efforts to widen university participation would not be known until after the main January deadline.

The University of East Anglia (UEA) has seen a rise in applications for more vocational courses like pharmacy and education in the past few years.

It also offers degree apprenticeships, which combine a higher education qualification with a work placement.

The University of East Anglia says it has seen an increase in the number of people applying for more vocational courses such as pharmacy. Picture: UEA (Image: Archant)

Helena Gillespie, academic director of widening participation and senior lecturer in education at the University of East Anglia, said: 'We do increasingly see people looking for a degree in an area of business rather than courses for traditional academic subjects. In the school of education our numbers are shooting up.

'People are increasingly looking for that sort of degree and UEA wants to help them.

'Even within traditional subjects we are working hard to enable students to do things like internships because it is those things that make the difference in that crucial first job interview.'

The University Centre West Anglia (UcWA) offers degree and degree apprenticeship programmes validated by Anglia Ruskin University and delivered in King's Lynn, Wisbech and Cambridge, from business management and computer science to psychosocial studies.

Norwich University of the Arts. The university has art-based courses from fashion to visual effects. Picture: Owen Richards (Image: 2012)

Higher education manager Chris Challender said: 'Whilst the campus is relatively small our student's ambitions are huge with over 80pc of students graduating with a first or upper-second class degree. Our full-time provision is of particular interest to those students with personal, family or work-commitments who prefer to study close to home.'

Meanwhile at Norwich University of the Arts student numbers have been rising steadily since it gained university status in 2012. It offers a broad range of arts courses from games development and architecture to fashion communication.