Introduction

UCAS has been at the heart of connecting people to higher education since 1993, and its foundations are built on the core principle of offering efficiency and value to the education sector, and transparency and fairness for those students it serves. This report aims to give you – as either a customer or stakeholder of UCAS – an overview of the value we have been delivering to students, universities and colleges, teachers and advisers, employers and partners across the education sector over the last 18 months. It also updates you on progress as we deliver against the priorities we set out in our 2020–2025 corporate strategy Discover Your Future.

The report includes the findings from an independent review we commissioned to understand and measure the value we bring for our customers, and the education sector generally.

UCAS strives to empower students to make the best decision for them by making choices clearer. The review concluded that by providing a clear framework and support for students making their higher education choices, UCAS facilitates £3.3billion in economic value each year. Primarily, this value comes from helping students find courses and institutions that they might not have otherwise been aware of or considered, and empowers them to make aspirational choices that may have once been perceived as out of reach. This brings benefits to the UK economy by matching the right individual to the right opportunity and helping them reach their potential, while offering significantly benefit to wider social mobility.

Throughout the report, you will also see UCAS’ insight on student progression released over the last 18 months, along with our ambitious plans to continue transforming how and when students navigate their choices, and how we support universities and colleges further. These include:

This is at the heart of UCAS – our work with the 360+ providers providing 50,000 undergraduate courses, serving over 700,000 applicants. The efficiencies we bring to university admissions saves students over 450,000 hours, and universities over 3 million hours – the equivalent of £49 million in staff time. Working with our partners, we are setting out how we’re reforming the way students apply for higher education to provide a more flexible system for all, fit for future modes and patterns of learning.

Our role as an independent provider of information, support, application services, and guidance to students and their advisers means we need to provide timely, accurate and impartial information. Three years ago we introduced the UCAS Hub, a personalised environment for students to research their options, and we have been investing in it further to make UCAS the go-to place for all education choices. We are aiming to bring parity to all post-school options, and each year more than 1 million students register with UCAS for support progressing to university, college, apprenticeships or employment.

While our reputation is for supporting students to traditional undergraduate degrees, we know almost half of students registering with UCAS are also interested in apprenticeships. Our ambition is to bring parity to all post-secondary choices and ensure students progressing to apprenticeships get the same support undergraduates do. Today, more than 2.2 million searches are made each year on ucas.com for apprenticeships. And we plan to work with universities, colleges, and employers to grow this, by building a service to connect students with apprenticeship employers.

UCAS recognises the continued challenge in widening access and participation, and the key role we play in supporting teachers and advisers, universities and colleges. These challenges will be more acute as we approach up to a million applicants in 2026, and we are investing in making it easier for you to connect to students and evaluate outreach efforts, while also improving the overall experience and support for disadvantaged students. The seven new questions we introduced into the application this year will transform our insight about disadvantaged or underrepresented students and the way they access support.

Global demand for higher education remains high, but the UK operates in a competitive market. We are already the largest single gateway to students navigating the UK higher education system and we are investing in new technology, with the launch of Myriad from UCAS to create a new gateway for postgraduate international students applying for UK higher education.

This report highlights the value UCAS has delivered to you in recent cycles, and I am confident the ambitious strategy we are delivering will add further value. The landscape is changing both globally and domestically, with up to 1 million applicants forecast in 2026, and continued growth until the end of the decade. Within this changing dynamic, above all we remain committed to working with all of you to address the challenges and opportunities facing the education sector, and supporting students from all walks of life in making the best choices for them.