A university technical college has received 40 per cent more applications than the available places, at a time when many UTCs are struggling to recruit pupils.
Ron Dearing University Technical College (UTC), in Hull, has 230 places for its September intake but received 325 applications.
The college for 14-19-year olds, which is backed by Hull University and regional employers, has now received 195 applications for Year 10 and 130 for year 12, making both age groups oversubscribed.
Principal Sarah Pashley said: “We’re even more oversubscribed than we were at this stage last year, and a key factor is that the school is now open and prospective students and their parents can see the state-of-the-art facilities and meet our excellent staff and students.”
The UTC has held three open events and showed parents and prospective pupils its facilities, which include a virtual reality suite and 3D printers.
UTCs hit by recruitment problems
It is positive news for a sector that has been hit by recruitment and financial problems, poor Ofsted judgements and closures since UTCs were introduced by the Coalition government in 2010.
Figures last year showed that out of 51 UTCs that had been launched, seven had been forced to close and a further four projects were terminated before opening.
A number of steps have been taken to increase the number of pupils choosing to join UTCs: from this month, schools are duty-bound to let UTCs talk to their Year 8 pupils about their provision. And last year, local authorities were forced to write to parents of Year 9 pupils about nearby UTCs.
However, challenges remain. Between 2013 and 2016, the number of new UTCs opening annually ran into double digits, but the most recently reported figures showed that just one was due to come into existence in 2018 - the North East Futures UTC in Newcastle.
Charles Parker, chief executive of the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, which promotes, licenses and supports UTCs, told Tes last year that he believed the DfE had effectively put the UTC programme on pause.
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