§ Sir Geoffrey Johnson SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list for each of the last 10 years for(a) England and (b) Wales how many students entered higher education; and of these, how many (i) dropped out before completing courses and (ii) failed their final examinations. [69090]
§ Mr. MudieThe numbers of students who entered higher education between 1988–89 and 1997–98 are shown in the table.
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HE entrants 1 to English and Welsh institutions 1988–89 to 1997–98 Year English institutions 2 Welsh institutions 2 1988–89 300,300 16,200 1989–90 322,000 18,000 1990–91 348,700 18,900 1991–92 401,800 21,700 1992–93 443,900 25,300 1993–94 470,800 26,100 1994–95 503,900 30,500
HE entrants 1 to English and Welsh institutions 1988–89 to 1997–98 Year English institutions 2 Welsh institutions 2 1995–96 528,200 33,800 1996–97 530,300 33,700 1997–98 541,500 33,000 1 Includes enrolments by home and overseas students onto the first year of undergraduate courses, full-time and part time 2 Excludes the Open University but includes all other higher education and further education institutions The available information on drop-out consists of UK level full-time and sandwich first degree drop-out rates published in the Departmental Report. The table shows these drop-out rates for the same 10 year period.
UK1 full-time and sandwich first degree drop-out rates Percentage Year Drop-out2 1988–89 14 1989–90 16 1990–91 15 1991–92 17 1992–93 17 1993–94 317–18 1994–95 317–18 1995–96 318–19 1996–97 n/a 1997–98 n/a 1 The institutional coverage of the drop-out rates is restricted to the former UFC universities in the UK and former polytechnics in England. 2 Drop-out covers all those leaving degree courses because of exam failure, ill health, personal and other reasons. It includes those switching to a lower level course but it excludes students transferring between degree courses or subjects. 3 Ranges are given because the introduction of a new data source made it difficult to measure drop-out accurately. Drop-out covers those who leave full-time and sandwich first degree courses for various reasons including exam failure but students who failed their final examinations are not separately identified. The drop-out rates relate to a narrower range of courses and have a different institutional coverage than the entrant figures shown.
The Department is currently working with the higher education funding bodies in the UK to develop a method of calculating drop-out rates which can be applied to all UK higher education institutions and which takes into account the non-traditional routes that some students follow. These routes may include changing courses or institutions, repeating years or leaving higher education for a year or more before continuing their studies.