§ 39. Mr. Watsonasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many undergraduates are
78Wpopulation in the "typical year group" entering higher education. The following figures have been prepared by the OECD. Column 2 shows the age group encompassing 80 per cent. of all new entrants to full-time higher education in each country, from which the typical year group is calculated—for example, for the United Kingdom the typical year group is the total number of 18 and 19-year-olds divided by two.
These figures show that each year the total numbers entering full-time and part-time higher education in all age groups in the United Kingdom are roughly the equivalent of one-third of a typical year group. On this basis, we compare favourably with all our European partners.
expected to be in British universities by the autumn of 1984; and how this compares with the numbers at autumn 1978.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe number of full-time home and European Community undergraduates in universities in Great Britain in December 1978 was 222,930. It is estimated that there will be 218,000 in the autumn of 1984 if the student number targets set by the University Grants Committee for such students are attained. Both figures include students from Greece. There are no target numbers for overseas undergraduates from countries outside the EC.