From the autumn, all but a handful will be charging the maximum of £3,000 a year for all courses.The other major innovation in higher education will take place in the spring when the Government makes its official response to its consultations on moving towards a system of young people applying to university after receiving their A-level results. People who would have left it until this year to apply tried to get in last autumn."This year will be one of major change for universities. "Even if there is a fall-off - and it's too early to say yet - that doesn't necessarily mean young people are deciding not to go to university," he said "It may just be because of the surge in numbers last year. "However, in 1998 when tuition fees initially came in there was a one-year dip, and that might happen again this time with the introduction of variable fees. What I am confident about is that over the long term you will see a continuing increase."Ministers' fears of a fall in student numbers was reinforced yesterday by a report suggesting that the number of teenagers applying for university places for this year had fallen by up to 13 per cent at some institutions. The unpublished figures, produced by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Services (Ucas) and obtained by The Sunday Times, showed an aggregate 5 per cent drop in applications from all sixth-formers.Mr Rammell said he believed the Government's package of support for students - under which the poorest would receive a £2,700 grant plus bursaries from universities which could take their aid up to as much as £6,000 a year - would convince most youngsters it was worth opting for university.

That would not be seen as good news for the Government's attempt to reach its target of getting 50 per cent of young people into higher education by the end of the decade. However, Bill Rammell, the Higher Education minister, is confident that any fall-out will be reversed in 2007 "I think it is foolhardy to make predictions," he said. The new generation of British rock bands has clearly made an impression on their young fans. Inspired by the success of such groups as the Arctic Monkeys and the Kaiser Chiefs, increasing numbers of teenage boys are now seeking to emulate their heroes by learning to play musical instruments. Nearly 440,000 pupils aged five to 16 now learn a musical instrument through classes run by their local council. About 40 per cent of these are now boys, up from just 32 per cent in 2002, according to the largest ever survey of local authority music services.

Nearly 42,000 boys are taking guitar lessons run by their local music service A further 12,250 are learning to play drums.. The Higher Education minister has admitted there could be a dip in student numbers this year. The record surge in applications last summer - said to be an attempt by students to beat the introduction of top-up fees of up to £3,000 this autumn - makes it difficult to sustain the increases of the past few years. "They're nasty, smelly, noisy, brash and ugly things and have no place in a modern society," said Darling "Unlike our exciting, all-new bendy buses.".

"It is nothing short of outrageous for a Prime Minister's wife to be conducting herself in this way," says David Cameron at Prime Minister's Question Time, "although I think that she's a very nice person, and she does give excellent value for money."DECEMBERWembley Mole Conservancy, formerly Wembley Stadium, opens to the public. A new film in the unusual "gay wildlife" documentary genre, Mince of the Moles, packs in the crowds.Professor Colin Pillinger holds a press conference to announce that his space probe has been located on one of the moons of Alpha Centauri, where it has been converted into a fast-food restaurant by local life-forms.Transport Secretary Alistair Darling announces, "not before time", a complete ban on cars being used for "any form of forwards or backwards travel" anywhere in the UK. Singled out for special mention are his TCP Soup, Brake Fluid Pannacotta and Creosote Walnut Cake.Transport for London announces swingeing fixed penalties for any travellers saying aloud anything disparaging about London's "bendy buses".Cherie Blair QC is discovered to be supplementing her income by exotic dancing at the Randy Rabbit, a club located beside Ealing Common. Stanfords, the cartography shop in Long Acre, London, reports mass buying of maps of eastern Europe by members of the press.The Booker Prize is won by Xanthe Fellatio, a beautiful Anglo-Brazilian first-timer, with her scorching novel, Blimey I'm Gorgeous. The judges' decision is roundly condemned by The Independent's literary editor as "undermining the very temple of Western civilisation".At the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton, Charles Kennedy rallies the troops with a lachrymose burst of "I'm Nobody's Child" and a rousing "Glasgow Belongs to Me", complete with hand gestures.NOVEMBERHeston Blumenthal's new restaurant, the Portly Widgeon, opens in Guildford to rapturous praise. Tony Blair agrees to send a division of infantry to the Polish border, "should that be what the President requires".

Their feeble tears and piteous soliloquies, captured on camera, are priceless.OCTOBERAs 50,000 Navy Seals are mustered for the invasion of Pomerania, Kofi Annan pleads for calm reason and cool heads. In the ensuing carnage, the third violin is rushed to the Chelsea and Westminster hospital to have a trombone slide extracted from her ear.In the Commons, David Cameron congratulates the Prime Minister on his lovely tan and hopes he will share with him the brand of his sunscreen.In a new reality television show, Pushing Up The Daisies, six gullible members of the public are encouraged to believe they have been buried alive and have subsequently woken up in a coffin six feet underground. The President is informed.In the final Test match at the Oval, Sri Lanka are 894 for 2 at the end of the third day.In a bid to make The Last Night of the Proms more "edgy", the BBC asks Mr Ozzy Osbourne to take the baton for Walton's "Fantasia on British Sea Shanties". "People must learn that possessing a car is a dying privilege. And we are proud to be spreading the word."AUGUSTMr and Mrs Blair take their holiday at Dunshootin, the glamorous holiday home of the businessman Mr Nicholas van Hoogstraten.