§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will estimate the participation rate in higher education for 18 to 24-year-olds in each UK nation and Government office region in each of the last five years. [145254]
§ Mr. Wicks[holding answer 15 January 2001]: Participation rates are not routinely collated below national level. The available figures for the four home countries, showing the proportion of under 21-year-olds who enter higher education for the first time, are given in the table. A higher proportion of young people from Scotland and Northern Ireland enter HE than from England and Wales. This is largely due to high levels of participation in Diplomas, Certificates and other similar undergraduate qualifications in these countries. There was an increase in the Great Britain index in 1997–98 related partly to changes in the funding arrangements for higher education, with students choosing to enter HE rather than wait until 1998–99. There was a corresponding reduction in 1998–99 before the entry rates started to increase again in 1999–2000. Between 1996–97 and 1999–2000, total students rose by 76,000 in England and by 89,000 in Great Britain.
Age participation index (API)' by country 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–20002 England n/a 32 29 30 Wales n/a 32 30 29 Scotland n/a 46 44 43 Northern Ireland n/a 44 40 42 Great Britain 33 33 31 32 1The API is defined as the number of GB domiciled initial entrants to full-time and sandwich undergraduate HE aged under 21, expressed as a percentage of the average number of 18 and 19-year-olds in the population 2Provisional Note:
n/a = Not available
§ Jane GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many students were in higher education in(a) 1996–97 and (b) 2000–01. [154391]
§ Mr. WicksThe available data are given in the table. Figures for 2000–01 will be available at the end of April.
261W
Higher education students in England1 Thousand Academic year Number 1996–97 1,534 1999–2000 1,610 1Full-time and part-time, undergraduate and postgraduate, home and overseas, including the Open University
§ Jane GriffithsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what the average level of Government funding was per student in higher education in(a) 1996–97 and (b) 2000–01. [154392]
§ Mr. WicksI refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Bolton West (Ms Kelly) on 6 March 2001,Official Report, columns 164–65W.