Foreword All surveys are informative, assuming they follow a robust methodology, but annual surveys tend to amount to more than the sum of their parts. That is certainly the case here, as asking the same questions year after year of different cohorts illuminates changing trends over time – which is especially important at the moment, given the fractious and ever-changing political, educational and global environments. The results suggest there are some real grounds for hope in 2025 across a range of indicators, after many years when the obstacles to learning seemed to be growing. The secondary schooling of this year’s applicant cohort was less disrupted by COVID than was the case last year, so these improvements are to be expected. We now have to hope that the indicators that have turned a corner this year continue on their new upwards trajectory. Not everything is moving clearly in the right direction, however. Today’s school leavers continue to be an unlucky generation. The data show no material improvement in the main wellbeing measures. Whatever the underlying explanation for this – whether it is the prevalence of social media, concern about the state of the world or worries about applicants’ own personal futures – it is even clearer than it was that being young is hard, bridging school and university is hard and living as a student during a cost-of- living crisis is hard. In the main, those who do enrol tend to fight their way through with resilience, and they are likely to have more fulfilling lives as a result of their higher education, but the journey through is often more fraught than we would hope. Among this year’s more salutary findings are some unwelcome differences in the applicant experience among people from different socioeconomic backgrounds. People who have been entitled to free school meals are more likely to live at home while studying, more likely to feel lonely and more likely to say they have considered entering full-time work rather than enrolling in higher education. This suggests Ministers are right to focus particularly on the gap in higher education access between those eligible for free school meals and those who are not, especially when the chasm between these two groups has recently grown. The new data obtained from the Applicant Index are cut in other informative ways too in the pages that follow. Particularly notable perhaps are the splits between home and international students – for example, when it comes to the underlying motivations to study. In some areas, international students have more positive perceptions of their higher education than UK students, reflecting the world-class nature of our higher education sector when viewed through the eyes of those who have grown up elsewhere and also its tremendous success as an export earner. Our own recent work at the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) reaffirms many of the problems identified here. For example, the HEPI / TechnologyOne Minimum Income Standard for Students report shows that maintenance support remains too low for many students to make the most of their higher education. Nick Hillman Director, Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) The Unite Students Applicant Index is much more than a longitudinal study of well-trodden areas; it pushes our knowledge of what applicants expect of their higher education way beyond what was previously known. It is without question the most important large-scale regular survey of people on their way to higher education and, as such, needs to be read carefully by policymakers, university staff and those guiding young people – whether parents, teachers or careers advisers. FOREWORD Unite Students | Applicant Index Report 5 INTRODUCTION THEMATIC ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY TOPICAL ISSUES BACK TO CONTENTS