Anyone writing an article saying "why are university applications down?" has demonstrated they don't understand the difference between raw totals and application rates: the total cohort of 18 year olds has shrunk 2.5%. The application *rate* in that cohort is up.
The rate is the relevant statistic - current policy is relevant for the decisions the poll of current 18 years olds make. It is not responsible for the decisions their parents made in 1999/2000 about whether to have children.
There's also no evidence of a decline in students applying either from the rest of the EU (numbers basically same as record levels of past 2 years) or outside the EU (increase to a new record level).
