The two pie charts give information about the major reasons why students chose a particular university in the United Kingdom in 1987 and 2007.
Overall, while the suitability of degree courses remained the most significant reason in both years, remarkable changes occurred in other areas.
Taking a closer look at the charts, it is obvious that the Relevance of degree courses remained the top concern for students, accounting for 35% in 1987 and 37% 20 years later. Another surprising thing is the increase in the number of students wanting to stay close to their parents, doubling from 10% to about 20% in two decades.
On the other hand, the number of students choosing because of the quality of resources decreased slightly from 21% to 17% in 2007. Meanwhile, the quality of teaching has not received much attention anymore, having almost doubled from the late twentieth century to the early twenty-first century. However, the most prominent decline was seen in good sports and social activities, which fell sharply from 19% to just 6%, suggesting that extracurricular amenities became far less decisive in students’ university choices