Best Schools - Record numbers of 18-year-olds in England have applied for a place at university, figures from Ucas

The admissions service statistics show 236,350 school leavers - 40% in total - had applied by this year's deadline of 30 June - 3,970 more than in 2018.

Across the UK as a whole, 275,520 young people have applied to university this year - up from 272,910 at the same point in 2018, but down from 278,130 in 2017.

The figures also show that there are record numbers of black, Asian and mixed race 18-year-old applicants, while the number of white applicants continues to fall.

Despite uncertainty over Brexit, the number of applicants, across all age groups, from the European Union has risen by 540 from 50,120 in 2018 to 50,660 this year.

The Ucas figures also show a record number of applicants from outside the EU applying to UK universities - 81,340 students have applied to study in the UK, an increase of 8%.

The Brighton school tackling football homophobia

Brighton College has worked for the last two years with the LGBT rights campaign charity Stonewall, initially adopting their rainbow laces initiatives across 16 netball teams as well as 14 football teams. Brighton College has gone further, however, teaming with Stonewall to sponsor all the school’s sports teams for the 2018-19 academic year, while the 1st XI boys’ team now wear the Stonewall logo on their shirts as main sponsor.

But in an arena of rising homophobic tensions around schools, Brighton College has continued its drive for LGBT inclusivity off the sports field as well as on it. In 2013, Will Emery became the first ‘out’ head boy of a public school after an overwhelming vote by over 1,000 pupils and staff. In 2016, requests from gender dysphoric pupils prompted the school to drop traditional gender-based uniform, allowing any pupil to wear either skirt or trousers. And in 2017, Brighton College became the first UK private school to join a Pride parade when it took part in Brighton’s huge annual summer celebration.