HC Deb 02 April 1976 vol 908 cc612-5W
Mr. McNamara

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will publish in the Official Report statistics of mature students studying at universities, polytechnics and colleges of further education over the past five years, indicating the disciplines which they are reading.

Mr. Gerry Fowler

Following are the number of students who at 31st December each year were aged 25 or over on full-time or sandwich courses: An analysis by discipline of all these students could be provided only at a disproportionate cost. The following table gives the only analysis available for university mature undergraduates and relates to those aged 26 or over at 31st December 1974:

TABLE 2
United Kingdom Universities in 1974–75 (provisional)
Subject Age 26 or over at 31st December 1974
Education 234
Combinations of Education with other subjects 253
Total Education 487
Medicine 857
Dentistry 230
Pharmacy 43
Pharmacology 6
Other studies allied to Medicine and Health 177
Total Medicine, Dentistry and Health 1,313
Aeronautical Engineering 22
Chemical Engineering 44
Civil Engineering 292
Electrical Engineering 334
Mechanical Engineering. 273
Production Engineering. 40
Mining 26
Metallurgy 18
Other general and combined Engineering subjects 79
Surveying 5
Other Technologies 53
Combinations of Group 3 with Group 4–9 45
Total Engineering & Technology 1,231
Agriculture 45
Agriculture Biology 9
Agricultural Chemistry 1
Forestry 18
Veterinary studies 44
Total Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Science 117
Biology 76
Botany 30
Zoology 38
Physiology and/or Anatomy 18
Biochemistry 50
Other, general and combined Biological Sciences 54
Mathematics 209
Mathematics with Physics 12
Physics 71
Chemistry 74
Geology 54
Subject Age 26 or over at 31st December 1974
Environmental Sciences (other than Geology) 41
Other, general and combined Physical Sciences 31
Combinations of Biological and Physical Sciences 122
Combinations of Group 5 with Group 6–9 112
Total Science 992
Business Management studies 75
Economics 291
Geography 83
Accountancy 17
Government and Public Administration 228
Law 453
Psychology 340
Sociology 514
Social Anthropology 64
Combinations within Group 6 876
Combinations of Group 6 with Groups 7–9 576
Total Social, Administrative and Business 3,517
Architecture 123
Town and Country Planning 15
Home, Hotel and Institutional Management 7
Other professional and vocational subjects 98
Total Architecture and other professional subjects 243
English 476
Welsh and other Celtic languages and Studies 8
French language and studies 101
French/German language and studies 19
German language and studies 80
Hispanic language and studies 43
Other and combined West European language and studies 86
Russian language and studies 36
Other Slavonic and East European language and studies 10
Chinese language and studies 20
Oriental, Asian and African language and studies 64
Classical studies 20
Other, general and combined language and studies. 82
Combinations of Group 8 with Group 9 260
Total language, literature and area studies 1,305
History 300
Archaeology 63
Philosophy 168
Theology 458
Art and Design 71
Drama 22
Subject Age 26 or over at 31st December 1974
Music 36
Arts general and combined other Arts subjects 513
Total Arts other than languages 1,631
All students including subjects not known 10,837

Corresponding information is not available for students in further education establishments.