The bar chart illustrates the proportions of main causes why students chose to study at a particular UK university in 1985 and 2005, namely Teaching quality, Sports facilities, Degree programs, Proximity to home, and Resources.
Overall, the importance of sports facilities increased considerably over the period, becoming the most popular reason in 2005, while proximity to home declined. By contrast, the proportion of students choosing universities for degree programs remained relatively stable.
While the proportion of students who chose to study in teaching quality stood at about 22% in 1985, and rose noticeably to just over 25% in 2005, the percentage for sports facilities witnessed an accelerated decrease at roughly 13%, but increased quickly to approximately 27% students over the same year. Moreover, Degree programs accounted for the same proportion with around 20% in both two years .
In contrast, to a substantial drop in proximately to home from around 17% to 10% of students, for those proportion of resources declined marginally from 15% to 11% in 1985 and 2005.