The campus of Harvard University. UK applications to the Ivy League college have increased from 370 to 500 this year. Photograph: Eamonn Mccabe for the Guardian The number of UK teenagers applying to Ivy League and top state-funded universities in the US has risen sharply in the past few years, figures show.
Data obtained from seven prestigious US institutions reveals that a major drive to recruit UK undergraduates is starting to pay off.
One leading headteacher told the Guardian that the growing interest came partly from a belief among parents and pupils that "UK universities were creaking at the limits".
Harvard has received 500 applications from UK students for undergraduate courses this autumn, a jump from 370 last year.
Meanwhile, the University of California, Berkeley, has had 166 applications from the UK, up from 130 last year. The university said applications from other European Union students had fallen from 343 last year to 281 this year.
Cornell University, which is part of the Ivy League and is based in New York, has seen applications from UK students rise this year to 197 from 176 last year.
Some of the universities count only the number of students who enrol on their courses rather than those who apply.
Enrolments from the UK to Yale, another Ivy League institution, have doubled in the last five years, with a large spike last year. In 2006, 15 UK students enrolled. This grew to 25 in 2009 and 36 the following year. Enrolments at Columbia, also in the Ivy League, rose from 164 in 2003 to 170 in 2006 and 178 in 2009.
At Indiana, one of the top-rated US public universities, there has been a modest rise in UK applications this year – from seven to nine. Other applications from the EU grew to 50 this year from 41 last year. At Princeton, another Ivy League institution in New Jersey, enrolments from the UK have more than doubled in the last five years, from 32 in 2005 to 77 in 2010. In 2009, there were 81 enrolments from the UK.
The cost of studying at an Ivy League university for a UK student can reach up to £37,000 ($60,000) a year. Most undergraduate courses last four years. Fees at state-funded universities are substantially lower, but it can be difficult to obtain a place without US citizenship.
Despite this, the headteacher of a leading public school, King's College school in Wimbledon, south-west London, said he had noticed that interest in studying at US universities was growing.
Andrew Halls said the near-trebling of tuition fees was one factor: from autumn 2012, universities in England and Wales will be allowed to charge up to £9,000 in tuition fees each year. But Halls also said there was "growing disillusionment" among pupils and parents with what most UK universities could offer. "There is a bit of a sense that UK universities are creaking at the limits," he said.
"Our 13- to 16-year-olds are talking about applying to US universities much more than they used to. There's a feeling that [if you go to a UK university that is not Oxbridge], you may not get as much teaching as you would like. US universities emphasise the 'whole man'. They love to hear about students playing the piano and other extra-curricular activities. They want a fulsomeness that Oxbridge and others seem distrustful of. Quite a lot of parents say that it is because of this that they are prepared to make a big financial sacrifice and pay for a US university."
A report on overseas students in the US by the Institute of International Education found that in 2004 there were 8,274 UK students studying in the US. In 2009 this had grown to 8,861.
Lauren Welch, head of the advisory service at the US-UK Fulbright Commission, which encourages educational exchanges between UK and US students, said many US universities and colleges saw this year as "an unprecedented opportunity to recruit British students".
"They know that tuition fees are increasing threefold in just one year and that places will be capped on places for UK students, and they want to take advantage of this chance to make students aware of the American alternative."
Welch added that the profile of students who went to study in the US was changing. "They were primarily from greater London and the south-west and attended an independent or international school," she said. "We are now seeing more and more students apply to the US from state and grammar schools and from a much wider spectrum of the British population."
King's College school is holding a conference – the American Dream – this September for headteachers and pupils to discuss applying to US universities.
Data obtained from seven prestigious US institutions reveals that a major drive to recruit UK undergraduates is starting to pay off.
One leading headteacher told the Guardian that the growing interest came partly from a belief among parents and pupils that "UK universities were creaking at the limits".
Harvard has received 500 applications from UK students for undergraduate courses this autumn, a jump from 370 last year.
Meanwhile, the University of California, Berkeley, has had 166 applications from the UK, up from 130 last year. The university said applications from other European Union students had fallen from 343 last year to 281 this year.
Cornell University, which is part of the Ivy League and is based in New York, has seen applications from UK students rise this year to 197 from 176 last year.
Some of the universities count only the number of students who enrol on their courses rather than those who apply.
Enrolments from the UK to Yale, another Ivy League institution, have doubled in the last five years, with a large spike last year. In 2006, 15 UK students enrolled. This grew to 25 in 2009 and 36 the following year. Enrolments at Columbia, also in the Ivy League, rose from 164 in 2003 to 170 in 2006 and 178 in 2009.
At Indiana, one of the top-rated US public universities, there has been a modest rise in UK applications this year – from seven to nine. Other applications from the EU grew to 50 this year from 41 last year. At Princeton, another Ivy League institution in New Jersey, enrolments from the UK have more than doubled in the last five years, from 32 in 2005 to 77 in 2010. In 2009, there were 81 enrolments from the UK.
The cost of studying at an Ivy League university for a UK student can reach up to £37,000 ($60,000) a year. Most undergraduate courses last four years. Fees at state-funded universities are substantially lower, but it can be difficult to obtain a place without US citizenship.
Despite this, the headteacher of a leading public school, King's College school in Wimbledon, south-west London, said he had noticed that interest in studying at US universities was growing.
Andrew Halls said the near-trebling of tuition fees was one factor: from autumn 2012, universities in England and Wales will be allowed to charge up to £9,000 in tuition fees each year. But Halls also said there was "growing disillusionment" among pupils and parents with what most UK universities could offer. "There is a bit of a sense that UK universities are creaking at the limits," he said.
"Our 13- to 16-year-olds are talking about applying to US universities much more than they used to. There's a feeling that [if you go to a UK university that is not Oxbridge], you may not get as much teaching as you would like. US universities emphasise the 'whole man'. They love to hear about students playing the piano and other extra-curricular activities. They want a fulsomeness that Oxbridge and others seem distrustful of. Quite a lot of parents say that it is because of this that they are prepared to make a big financial sacrifice and pay for a US university."
A report on overseas students in the US by the Institute of International Education found that in 2004 there were 8,274 UK students studying in the US. In 2009 this had grown to 8,861.
Lauren Welch, head of the advisory service at the US-UK Fulbright Commission, which encourages educational exchanges between UK and US students, said many US universities and colleges saw this year as "an unprecedented opportunity to recruit British students".
"They know that tuition fees are increasing threefold in just one year and that places will be capped on places for UK students, and they want to take advantage of this chance to make students aware of the American alternative."
Welch added that the profile of students who went to study in the US was changing. "They were primarily from greater London and the south-west and attended an independent or international school," she said. "We are now seeing more and more students apply to the US from state and grammar schools and from a much wider spectrum of the British population."
King's College school is holding a conference – the American Dream – this September for headteachers and pupils to discuss applying to US universities.
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