§ Dr. Hampsonasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) if she will publish for each year from 1970 the numbers of mature students in higher education, and the proportion they formed of total student numbers;
(2) what are her estimates for the proportion that mature students will form of total student numbers in higher education in each of the next 10 years.
§ Mr. OakesFor the purposes of higher education planning, mature students are defined as home entrants to higher education aged 21 and over. On this basis, the information is as follows:
Mature home entrants (000's) As percentage of all home entrants to HE 1970–71 27.3 21.0 1971–72 29.2 21.6 1972–73 28.1 20.8 1973–74 29.6 22.0 1974–75 30.5 22.4 1975–76 31.4 22.6 1976–77 33.0 23.5 1977–78 33.8 24.6 (provisional) Numbers and proportions of mature students over the next 10 years will depend at least in part on the outcome of the general review of higher education policy initiated by the discussion document, "Higher Education into the 1990s", published in February 1978. One of the models described in that document referred to the future possibility of more systematic opportunities for recurrent higher education for mature students.