There have been seven applications for every undergraduate place at the University of Sussex, according to figures released on Monday (30 January).

The new statistics from UCAS - the higher education admissions service - show that, for 2012 entry, the total number of applications is down nationally by 7.4%.

At Sussex, the 17,028 degree applications received by the 15 January UCAS deadline also represents a drop of 7.4% compared to 2011.

This translates into seven applications for each of the 2,200 undergraduate places available for home and EU students – the highest level of demand ever at Sussex. The government imposes a strict limit on the number of places for home and EU undergraduates at each UK university.

The decrease in applications to Sussex follows on from last year’s exceptional surge, when prospective students were looking to enter university ahead of the introduction of higher fees, so some contraction was expected.

While down on last year, applications to Sussex are higher than two years ago and 46% higher than they were three years ago.

Rob Evans, Head of Admissions, said: “The competition for places at Sussex has been for many years quite high, so we are expecting things this year to be much as usual.”

This year Sussex has also seen significant increases in a range of subjects: numbers applying to study physics have more than doubled and there has been substantial growth in maths (up 57%), English (up 49%), biology (up 26%) and psychology (up 22%).

The number of applications to Sussex from outside the EU - where places receive no funding support from the government and are not restricted - has risen by more than 30%.

Although 15 January was the deadline for applicants to be given “equal consideration”, UCAS still sends applications to universities until the end of the cycle on 30 June.