§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what proportion of the United Kingdom's total population over school leaving age is studying full-time; what proportion is studying in universities; and what information he has about such figures for Japan, France, West Germany, Italy and Ireland, respectively.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe following readily available figures, which have been extracted from OECD and UNESCO publications, give full-time enrolments in post-compulsory education as a percentage of total population. Due to differences in the educational systems in these countries—lengths of course, availability of part-time education, and so on—these figures are not a satisfactory basis for international comparisons of educational participation.
Full-time enrolments as a proportion of total population Percentages All post-compulsory education Universities Japan (1977) 5.8 1.6 France (1977) 3.7 1.6 Federal Republic of Germany (1977) 3.8 1.2 Italy (1976) 5.7 1.8 Ireland (1977) 4.1 0.7 United Kingdom (1981) 2.4 0.5