More than three quarters of secondary school pupils now aim to go to university.Research for the Sutton Trust found that 77 percent of school children thought that they would go into higher education. This is up five percent on last year and there has already been a 10 percent rise in applications to universities this year. It seems more and more 18 year olds are looking to postpone job hunting in the recession.A third of those who did not wish to go to university cited the potential to earn money as their main reason for not applying. This figure was down 20 percent on last year’s as nervous teenagers fear the weakened job market. While the government is committed to getting 50 percent of young people to university they have had to cap places this year due to a lack of funding.Sutton Trust chairman Sir Peter Lampl said: "The survey suggests that efforts to increase participation have been buoyed by the economic crisis and the shortage of jobs, which has made further study a more attractive prospect for many young people. While this is good news in some respects, we must ensure we don't build up students' expectations early on in school, only for them to be dashed at age 18."