§ Mr. DjanoglyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students were(a) entered and (b) completed higher education courses in each year since 1996. [6107]
§ Margaret Hodge[holding answer 16 October 2001]: The information requested is given in the following table. It is not possible to calculate completion rates from these figures because of the inclusion of part-time courses, which have variable course lengths. The latest figures published by HEFCE estimate that only 17 per cent. of students who started full-time first degree courses in the UK in 1997–98 will not obtain a qualification.
In 2000, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a table comparing estimates of non-completion rates in member countries. They showed an average of around a third of university students failing to complete their courses in OECD countries. The UK had the second lowest non-completion rate among the 30 OECD countries.
Higher Education Students1 in the UK 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–012 Entrants3 Postgraduate 172.7 180.9 189.4 197.9 198.6 Undergraduate 541.9 553.7 549.5 564.8 597.0 Completers4 Postgraduate 105.5 110.5 115.0 116.7 122.7 Undergraduate 312.7 321.4 322.6 331.9 337.8 1 Includes UK domiciled and overseas students, full-time and part-time, including the Open University. 2 Provisional. 3 Based on a census count as at 1 December. 4 Those gaining a qualification during the academic year.
§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students were participating in higher education in each year since 1990, broken down by social class. [9589]
§ Margaret HodgeThe available information on the social class of higher education students, as given in the following table, covers only those who apply to full-time and sandwich undergraduate courses via the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) and its predecessor organisations, the Universities Central Council for Admissions (UCCA) and the Polytechnic and Colleges Admissions Service (PCAS); data on the family background of students on postgraduate or part-time courses are not held centrally. Comparable figures for students entering in autumn 2001 will be released by UCAS in December.
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UK domiciled accepted applicants to full-time and sandwich undergraduate courses in the UK Thousand Year of entry Social class 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 I Professional 26.5 35.5 37.0 37.6 38.7 39.3 39.6 38.5 38.9 38.8 II Intermediate 78.9 90.1 96.7 101.1 103.4 105.0 117.4 115.6 115.7 117.7 IIIN Skilled non-manual 19.7 25.7 28.1 29.7 30.3 31.3 37.3 35.6 36.3 37.8 IIIM Skilled manual 23.3 33.9 39.3 40.4 42.5 40.9 44.8 44.2 44.5 44.4 IV Partly skilled 12.7 15.8 17.4 18.6 19.8 19.9 23.5 22.7 23.1 24.2 V Unskilled 2.1 3.6 4.3 4.5 5.0 4.9 5.6 5.3 5.5 5.5 Unknown 37.9 39.0 35.2 19.4 25.8 27.1 35.0 36.3 39.1 40.3 Total 201.2 243.6 258.1 251.3 265.5 268.3 303.3 298.2 303.1 308.7 Source:
UCAS for the years 1994 to 2000, UCCA and PCAS for previous years. 1991 was the first year in which both UCCA and PCAS collected social class data
§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students have dropped out of(a) part-time and (b) full-time higher education course in each year since 1990. [9590]
§ Margaret HodgeThe available information on non-completion rates are taken from the latest "Performance Indicators in Higher Education" published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency for England, which gives overall non-completion rates for students starting full-time first degree courses in the UK as follows:
Percentage Students starting courses in Non-completion rate 1997–98 17 1996–97 18 Non-completion rates for earlier years were calculated and published by the Department and are shown in the following table. These figures also cover students on full-time first degree courses but the methodology and institutional coverage used by the Department was different to that used by HEFCE, so the two sets of figures are not directly comparable. Neither HEFCE nor the Department have calculated non-completion rates for students on part-time courses. Non-completion rates for part-time courses are intrinsically more difficult to calculate because part-time students can take many years to complete their course.
Percentage Students starting courses in Non-completion rate 1995–961 18–19 1994–951 17–18 1993–941 17–18 1992–93 17 1991–92 17 1990–91 15 1 A range is given for these years because the introduction of a new data source in 1994–95 made it difficult to measure non-completion, as it was then calculated, accurately In 2000, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a table comparing estimates of non-completion rates in member countries. They showed an average of around a third of university 254W students did not complete their course in OECD countries. The UK had the second lowest non-completion rate among the 30 OECD countries.