Degrees in nursing, education and international studies are the most sought-after courses by this year's record number of university applicants.

More than 84,000 people, an increase of 3 per cent on last year, have applied for a course at one of the state's tertiary institutions.

On Wednesday night, the University Admissions Centre website will publish 55,000 offers for uni places. The remaining 29,000 applicants will have to wait until February 3 to learn what courses they have been offered.

University officials said the global economic downturn had cut demand for business courses, last year's most popular choices.

The University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney reported high demand for nursing and education. ''The most growth we've seen for 2010 has been our nursing course, increasing by more than 10 per cent,'' Sydney University spokesman David Craig said.

The NSW Nurses' Association said university nursing courses were usually popular but unfortunately there were always more applicants than places. ''The numbers have been steadily increasing though, particularly since the new Federal Government came into office,'' association acting general secretary Judith Kiejda said. ''We just have to convince the Government that there are not enough nurses in the wards once they are through.''

Mr Craig said courses that had dominated admissions last year - law, business, IT and engineering - had seen no growth for 2010.

At Macquarie University, the most popular course is arts. The Australian National University in Canberra has had a rise in applications for courses including music, visual arts, science, engineering, actuarial studies, law, medical science and psychology.

International studies has been a surprise hit at the University of Wollongong. The University of NSW went against the trend with commerce its most popular course.

The main round of offers will be made available on Wednesday at 9pm. The names of applicants who have been made an offer will be published in The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday.
 

（www.eduwo.com, Anna）