HC Deb 07 July 1998 vol 315 cc486-7W
Mr. Shaw

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was the percentage of 16 year olds in(a) Kent schools and (b) schools in other shire counties in the year 1996–97 who entered higher education. [48820]

Dr. Howells

Available information on higher education participation rates of 16 to 19 year olds from Kent, other shire counties and the whole of England is given in the following table.

Entrants to higher education courses at UK higher education institutions in 1997–98 by age and region of domicile and as a proportion of the regional population
Domicile Age1 Entrants Population2 Proportion (per cent.)
Kent 16 1 19,729 0
17 49 19,603 0
18 3,729 18,724 20
19 1,733 16,984 10
Other Shire Counties3 16 24 368,704 0
17 908 371,891 0
18 73,076 357,310 20
19 34,136 325,028 11
England 16 55 611,215 0
17 1,517 621,690 0
18 118,009 605,296 19
19 57,688 558,083 10
1Age as at 31 August 1997
2Populations at 1 January 1998, by age at 31 August 1997. Based on projections from the Government Actuary's Department and the Office for National Statistics
3Includes the following regions as they existed prior to local government reorganisation in 1997: Avon, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cleveland, Cornwall, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Durham, East Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hereford and Worcester, Hertfordshire, Humberside, Isle of Wight, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, North Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Warwickshire, West Sussex, Wiltshire