Post-18 trends: are traditional universities still students’ top choice?

For decades, the post-18 path sold to ambitious sixth-formers was relatively straightforward: secure good A-levels, head to a Russell Group university and graduate into a stable career. But across independent schools, that once-predictable narrative has fractured into something far more nuanced – and, as the schools we spoke to argue, far more realistic.

There’s no doubt that university still dominates school leavers’ pathways.‘It remains the destination of choice for the vast majority of our students, and it remains the most popular and aspirational outcome for parents too, as is clear from the very point at which families engage with our school,’ says Rhiannon Clancy, head of sixth form at Wolverhampton Grammar School. Rugby School tells us that around 93 per cent of its students still have their sights set on UK universities, while 85 per cent of Highgate School’s leavers head straight into higher education. Queen’s College London reports a similarly strong figure, with 89 per cent of UK university applicants winning places at Russell Group universities in 2025. At both St Benedict’s School and Surbiton High School, this figure hovers at around 90 per cent. Some 73 per cent of Framlingham College pupils secured a place at their first-choice university last year, with destinations ranging from the University of Cambridge to specialist institutions such as the Courtauld and the Royal Academy of Music.

Oxbridge retains its powerful pull. Highgate recently recorded its ‘highest number of offers in recent school records’, while Sexey’s describes a recent Cambridge offer as a ‘remarkable milestone that reflects the dedication and hard work that underpin success at the highest level of academic study’. At Gordonstoun, Oxbridge and Russell Group universities remain the ‘primary aspiration’ for sixth-formers, while King’s College School Wimbledon pupils have received 61 offers from Oxford and Cambridge this year alone.

Highgate sixth formers receiving their A-level results in 2025

Yet beneath these headline figures, pupils are becoming more strategic, more financially savvy and more future-focused. ‘We are seeing growing confidence in applying to top international destinations, particularly in the US, alongside a more informed and pragmatic interest in degree apprenticeships and career-led pathways,’ says Dr John Roberts, assistant head sixth form at Uppingham School. ‘This shift is driven less by a rejection of traditional routes but a more sophisticated understanding of value, employability and global opportunity.’ It’s evident that students are weighing up the benefits of the well-trodden university path alongside its alternatives. ‘What has changed is not ambition but approach,’ says Sarah Hayes Mooney, director of future pathways at Marymount International School London. ‘Students are now far more focused on academic and personal fit, integrating course content, teaching style and assessment models as carefully as institutional reputation.’

‘Rather than signalling a loss of faith in traditional routes, we read this as a growing appetite among students to actively curate their options instead of defaulting to convention,’ adds Ruth Davis, director of global futures at Tonbridge School. ‘The conversation in schools like ours is evolving. Where pupils go still matters, but it is becoming one factor in a much richer discussion about purpose, direction and professional readiness.’ At Malvern College, while Russell Groups and Oxbridge continue to attract strong interest, sixth-formers are ‘increasingly prioritising finding the right course and environment for them rather than feeling bound by expectation or prestige alone’.

Tonbridge School

Motivations for choosing courses or subjects are becoming more granular and better thought out. Queen’s College London tells us that more students are selecting universities in order to study under specific academics – astronomy with Professor Brian Cox or history with Professor David Olusoga at the University of Manchester, for example – rather than being led by brand names alone. At King's School Rochester, this same desire for a highly tailored fit is prompting pupils to look beyond conventional degree choices. Recent specialist routes have included the Chelsea Football Club Foundation degree – a sign that sixth-formers are seeking out distinctive courses that align closely with their ambitions.

At Gresham’s, the most popular subjects – business, economics and finance – are described as ‘flexible, transferable and clearly linked to future careers’. Lancing College reports a similar propensity towards courses such as STEM, business, management and social sciences, all of which promise ‘greater employability and applied learning’ while often incorporating a year in industry. Radley College notes sustained demand for politics, business and engineering courses, while King’s Ely is seeing a rising interest in STEM, driven by ‘the growth in scientific research and advances in technology’. City of London Freemen’s School adds: ‘Subject choices are reflecting evolving career interests, with politics and economics seeing notable growth in popularity in recent years, while STEM subjects continue to attract strong interest alongside a broad range of applications across disciplines.’ At Dulwich College Singapore, more than a third of all students’ university offers are for STEM degrees, with mechanical engineering emerging as the single most popular course, reflecting what the school describes as the ability of its IB programme to develop the breadth of knowledge, analytical thinking and intellectual curiosity that highly selective universities are seeking.

Lancing College

Across the board, pupils are aligning their academic decisions much more closely with perceived job-market outcomes. ‘There is possibly a move away from studying the arts or humanities, perhaps due to perceptions about employment prospects in future,’ notes Peter Ruben, deputy head academic at Bromsgrove School. This growing emphasis on employability is evident, with schools telling us that more students are drawn to courses with tangible outcomes, placement years, industry links or obvious career routes. Chloe Jones, higher education and Oxbridge coordinator at Claremont Fan Court, tells us that its students are weighing up their post-18 choices against ‘an increasingly competitive graduate jobs market’. The University of Bath is currently a popular choice, which Ms Jones explains is due to ‘its well-established placement schemes and strong links with employers’. Ermitage International School Paris credits the IB framework for encouraging pupils to keep their options open. ‘We are noticing increasing curiosity towards more flexible and career-oriented routes,’ says Rachel Quandalle, the school’s head of future pathways. ‘This is often driven by a desire for practical experience, as well as greater awareness of the diversity of opportunities available after school.’

Indeed, one of the most interesting shifts in the post-18 landscape in recent years is the rise in interest in degree apprenticeships. No longer the outlier, they are now widely seen as an aspirational choice for ambitious sixth-formers. Nick Fyfe, head of sixth form at St Swithun’s School, says: ‘With average student debt for a student in England at £53,000, and with a strained graduate job market due to AI disruption and a sluggish economy, coupled with a decline in the “graduate premium”, more students are certainly looking at degree apprenticeships to avoid debt and to secure guaranteed graduate employment if their performance in work and their studies are sufficiently good.’

Degree apprenticeships have been going through a rebrand. The Leys describes them as ‘the fastest-growing alternative pathway, particularly among high-performing pupils who would previously have been considered traditional university candidates’. Indeed, Merchant Taylors’ tells us ‘we have recently had a few pupils turning down places at very prestigious universities to pursue apprenticeships with, for example, Deloitte and JP Morgan’.

At Saint Felix School, degree apprenticeships are ‘no longer regarded as a “second-best” option’, but instead as ‘prestigious, rigorous and aligned with long-term career progression’, according to head of sixth form Emily Rushmere. Surbiton High School – where one alumna was recently named National Apprentice of the Year – describes them as ‘widely recognised by pupils and parents as prestigious and highly competitive pathways’, while Kent College Pembury reports that around a quarter of its cohort is actively exploring the option, demonstrating ‘a clear increase on previous years and one that reflects a wider shift in how students are defining success for themselves’, says head Katrina Handford.

At Abingdon, while university still remains the first choice for 98 per cent of students, head of career guidance Michael Triff has seen degree apprenticeships become a realistic alternative, driven by concerns over ‘rising fees, reduced contact hours and increased online teaching’. ‘We have noticed a definite increase in the number of boys who are considering the notion that university may not be the right option for them post-school,’ adds Tim Lawson, Radley College’s head of sixth form, ‘and the natural alternative has become a degree apprenticeship.’

It's a sentiment echoed by Ipswich School, which has seen apprenticeships secured with companies such as BT, Bloomberg and Airbus. ‘For students who already have a clear sense of their preferred industry, degree apprenticeships are becoming an increasingly attractive option,’ says the school. Similarly, King’s Worcester has just seen a ‘record year for apprenticeships’, with students drawn to a route that is, according to head of sixth form Josh Hand, ‘paid, does not accrue debt and offers work experience and a guaranteed job’. A Queen Anne’s Caversham pupil recently secured one of only eight places on a degree apprenticeship with Amazon, making the stakes higher than any university application. London Park School, meanwhile, tells us that degree apprenticeships are now ‘even more competitive than degrees at any university’.

Ipswich School

Students need to be up for the gruelling application processes. ‘They are an attractive prospect for those self-motivated pupils who are certain of the industry they would like to enter, have already been completing super-curricular activities and attending part-time jobs proactively outside of school, whilst also possessing the maturity to enable them to be work-ready,’ says Melanie Szender, Exeter School’s careers pathway adviser.

Despite interest rising sharply, the reality is that there are a limited number of opportunities up for grabs, with demand far exceeding supply. Degree apprenticeships are highly competitive, application processes are complex and timelines often clash with A-level preparation. Both Exeter School and The King’s School Canterbury describe a ’steady’ or ‘slow trickle’ rather than a surge in applications, and Rhiannon Clancy, Wolverhampton Grammar School’s head of sixth form, describes how after ‘a flurry of interest in response to the nationwide, governmental push to make these routes more attractive, this appetite has died down among our cohorts of the last few years’. At Highgate, just five students in six years have been successful, and at Shiplake College this figure remains at ‘two or three each year’, despite the school pushing the degree-apprenticeship route ‘very hard’. In response, Clifton College plans to develop a dedicated apprenticeship option within its careers guidance programme.

It's not just apprenticeships that are gaining momentum – overseas university applications are on the rise, too. At internationally minded schools such as TASIS England, global applications are the norm (students typically apply to 20 countries, with the US, Canada, Spain, Italy and the UK taking the top spots), yet other schools such as King’s Ely are reporting a growing number of applications to the US, Europe and beyond. Clifton College has seen a rise in the number of offers from prestigious international universities including Princeton, Yale, Bocconi and Sciences Po, while Shiplake reports a notable increase in overseas applications. ‘This year we have had applicants to Canada, Ireland and the Czech Republic, all of which are firsts for us,’ says the school’s head of futures Louise Rapple Moore. Channing, meanwhile, reports a ‘record-breaking surge’ in students opting for overseas destinations in 2026, and at St Edward’s School, Oxford, ‘nearly double’ the number of pupils hold international offers year on year from a range of countries including the US, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia and Hong Kong.

Where growth is happening, it is also diversifying. Halcyon London International School has seen a shift in interest towards European universities, with more students than ever exploring less traditionally popular destinations such as Sweden, Switzerland and Finland. Several schools, including Marymount International School and The King’s School Canterbury, note a pivot towards Europe, driven by cost, visa concerns and the rise of English-taught degrees. London Park School highlights increasing interest in Spain, Italy and Cyprus (particularly for medicine and dentistry), while Alice Smith School is on a drive to grow awareness of the Netherlands and Ireland as strategic alternatives. ‘Australia is under-represented relative to its potential,’ adds the school’s higher education and careers leader Abdul Oladipo.

City of London Freemen's School

At Tanglin Trust School, students are casting their nets wider than ever. While the UK and the US remain the two dominant destinations, this year’s cohort has submitted applications to universities in 17 countries, with growing interest in destinations such as China, India and Canada, as well as a rise in applications to universities in students’ home countries. Queen Anne’s Caversham tells us that applications to the US have declined due to ‘political uncertainty’, with students instead looking towards Canada and Europe. ‘There are some really interesting courses out there which are doing things differently, including ones where students can study in a different country each year,’ says the school’s deputy head academic Ben Stephenson.

With students more and more mindful of the cost of studying abroad, Sydenham & Dulwich Girls notes that international applications among its pupils are largely driven by scholarships or family connections. At Mount Kelly, almost 20 per cent of this year’s upper sixth have been offered full or partial scholarships to the US. Indeed, it’s the ‘generous scholarships available to the brightest students and talented sportswomen’ and the ‘broad liberal arts model’ that are helping drive interest in the US, according to Wimbledon High School, which in recent years has seen more and more students set their sights on international universities.

As with degree-apprenticeship applications, students shooting for an overseas university place need to be prepared to put in the hours and the effort. ‘These application processes are often complex, multifaceted and time-intensive, requiring careful management across differing timelines and requirements,’ says Richard Willis, head of sixth form at Heathfield School. ‘In response, we have refined our provision, beginning guidance earlier, leveraging our established relationships with international university counsellors and actively broadening students’ awareness of the full spectrum of opportunities available to them.’

Underpinning all of these trends is a greater financial awareness. With rising tuition fees, student debt, the cost of living and graduate uncertainty all impacting post-18 decision-making, ‘students are now less influenced by the social experience of university and more focused on value for money’, according to Jen Hoddinott, assistant head of sixth form (universities) at Abingdon. ‘The perceived erosion of the “degree premium” is prompting students to think more critically about return on investment,’ adds St Benedict’s.

St Benedict's School

In turn, this is influencing geographical choices too. Channing reports a sharp rise in students choosing London universities, suggesting that opting to stay close to home in order to make financial savings is becoming an increasingly important factor. Bromsgrove also notes a similar pattern, with more day pupils staying local due to cost-of-living pressures. ‘Many students, particularly those based in London, are factoring in staying at home rather than moving into halls of residence, with cost of living and personal circumstances playing a significant role in these decisions,’ adds Alex Hurst, deputy head of sixth form and head of university admissions at Sydenham & Dulwich High School.

Some students are buying themselves more time – and cash reserves – by taking a gap year. At Gresham’s, this is becoming more and more common, with students taking time out to ‘travel, gain work experience or really think about their choices’. At Royal Hospital School, gap years are now seen as ‘purposeful opportunities to gain work experience, travel, develop independence or build skills that will strengthen future applications’, rather than just a year-long break, according to the school’s head of futures Lauren Bayliss-Fuller. Interestingly, she adds that ‘we are also seeing a growing number of pupils exploring entrepreneurial pathways, either alongside their studies or as a genuine post-18 option. This ranges from students launching small online businesses and developing e-commerce brands, to those building a presence in content creation or exploring freelance opportunities in areas such as marketing and design.’

Wellington College notes a similar entrepreneurial spirit. The school has seen a rise in pupil entrepreneurship and ‘side hustles’, with pupils launching businesses while still at school and sustaining them through university or alternative routes (developments that Wellington says are particularly valuable for competitive US applications that reward initiative and impact beyond the classroom). They might be considering other options too – for instance, just under half of Framlingham College’s 2025 leavers chose straight-to-career opportunities ranging from hospitality school in Switzerland to ski-instructor training in Canada.

Crucially, students aren’t pigeonholing themselves, and a portfolio-style approach to post-18 applications is now the norm in many schools. King’s Ely’s head of sixth form Elizabeth Bennell tells us that students ‘are applying for both traditional and alternative pathways simultaneously in order to keep their options open’, while at Rugby School, those applying for alternative routes ‘still submit a UK university application alongside them’. Iain Regan Smith, Burgess Hill’s head of sixth form, says: ‘Among our international cohort, it has become increasingly common for students to apply both through UCAS and to overseas institutions in parallel, rather than viewing these options as mutually exclusive. This suggests a growing desire to keep a wide range of opportunities open.’

‘Students are making strategic decisions in response to modern economic realities,’ adds Cranleigh’s director of futures Naomi Ambrose, who has supported pupils through applications to hybrid programmes such as the PwC Flying Start degree alongside Oxbridge preparation. At Canford, pupils are continuing to secure multiple Russell Group offers while winning degree apprenticeships at the likes of Dyson and PwC. The school argues that this balancing act – maintaining academic ambition while embracing broader definitions of success – now sits at the heart of sixth-form education. Today’s pupils are ‘increasingly informed and open-minded about the wide range of pathways available to them beyond school’, with many now simultaneously pursuing leading universities, apprenticeships and international options, says Canford.

Canford School

Others are redefining success entirely. At Burlington House – a specialist sixth form for young people with SEND – progression planning is highly personalised. ‘For each student, the question is not “What course next?”, but “What environment, level of support and pathway will help this young person move confidently into adulthood?”’ Indeed, the once well-trammelled post-18 path is no longer linear, meaning schools are taking a closer look than ever at their sixth-form provision, tweaking it, making it more personalised and skills-focused, and introducing new BTECs or vocational options.

‘We need to reimagine futures education,’ says Faye Fraser, deputy head academic at Battle Abbey. ‘Too often, it remains overly linear and university-centric. Conversations we had with universities at the recent UCAS fair in Brighton reinforced this shift – many spoke about the rise of more vocational, industry-aligned courses and a clear appetite for students who arrive with proven experience, resilience and the drive to succeed beyond the classroom.’ The school’s response includes an innovative new sixth-form pathway blending academic rigour with real-world enterprise through industry placements and an expanded work experience programme from Year 9 onwards. Burlington House – which runs a thriving work-experience programme for Year 10s – sees the value this can bring: ‘It allows our students to experience real workplace expectations, practise communication and independence skills, and begin to understand the types of environments in which they might thrive.’

There’s no doubt that schools are being proactive. At Mount Kelly, a newly launched Business School aims to ‘bridge the gap between academic study and the real world’, with a strong focus on commercial awareness, entrepreneurship and the ethical use of AI. St Peter’s School York has recently introduced a new super-curricular programme to ‘develop skills beyond the A-level curriculum’, offering courses in areas including personal finance and AI, designed to equip students with the transferable skills they can take with them into the world of work. Dulwich College Singapore is reacting to a growing interest in STEM courses by introducing a dedicated STEM A-level alongside the IB from September – not as a replacement for the school’s flagship IB programme, but as an option for those who want to specialise earlier.

Bede’s has adapted its careers provision to provide more bespoke guidance, conducting mock interviews, offering practice aptitude tests, familiarising pupils with the recruitment and sifting process commonly used by employers and encouraging ‘early research and valuable workplace experience’. At Chigwell, students are even given lessons in using LinkedIn as part of their enrichment programme, reflecting a much more workplace-first approach to preparation for life beyond school. And at King’s College School Wimbledon, support for alumni extends to age 25 and beyond, with staff on hand to mentor pupils not just as they start university, but as they seek to make their way in the world of work too.

Others are offering unique and interesting ways to prepare students for less-traditional post-18 routes. At Gordonstoun, students can sign up for a deer management diploma, LANTRA-accredited tractor and chainsaw courses, and even the British Wool Board Blue Seal qualification in sheep shearing. Kent College Pembury, meanwhile, has introduced BTECs in areas such as marketing, criminology and medical science, while TASIS is gearing up to launch practical courses including AP cybersecurity and honours forensic sciences from September, helping prepare pupils for potential careers in related fields.

Gordonstoun alumna Tomi Adetona, who is currently studying a Level 6 degree apprenticeship with DHL as part of their women in supply chain accelerator programme

All things considered, it’s clear that university still reigns as the central pillar of post-18 aspirations, with Russell Group institutions still dominating and Oxbridge applications remaining strong. But student behaviour is changing too. ‘Just because you could go to a Russell Group university no longer means you should,’ emphasises Chigwell School. Indeed, students are now more internationally mobile, more financially aware, more open to apprenticeships and more willing to delay or diversify their decisions. ‘Students are increasingly confident in selecting routes that best suit their strengths and ambitions, whether academic, creative or professional,’ summarises Frensham Heights.

In short, there’s been a tangible shift in mindset, not outcomes – where pupils once fixated on which university they got into, they are now asking which combination of options best serves their future. ‘University is very much alive and well,’ says Robin Griffiths, head of sixth form and careers at The Leys. What has changed is that it now competes with other high-quality options that feel both relevant and financially sensible. As Holly Smith, director of strategic partnerships at international-university admissions specialists Guidewell Global, observes, students are no longer relying on a single post-school plan – they are building a robust Plan B and even Plan C as they weigh up a wider range of global options and focus more closely on finding the right fit rather than simply chasing prestige. They are applying more widely, questioning more critically and choosing more deliberately, and in turn schools are evolving from gatekeepers of a single pathway into navigators of many.

Post-18 trends: are traditional universities still students’ top choice?

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