§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students from Leeds West obtained places at a university in(a) 2002 and (b) 1997; and what percentage of those who had sat A levels went on to university. [81487]
§ Margaret HodgeFigures for the number of students who enter higher education are not collated centrally by constituency.
The available figures for Great Britain, showing the proportion of under 21-year-olds who enter higher education for the first time, are given in the table. There was an increase in the 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 1997–98 and 2000–01, total HE students in English universities and colleges rose by 83,000. Nationally, around nine out of 10 18-year-olds who obtain two or more A levels enter HE by the time they are 21.
Age participation index (API) 1 for Great Britain Year Percentage 1997–98 33 1998–99 31 1999–2000 32 2000–01 33 2001–02 233–35 2002–03 233–35 1 The 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. 2 Projected: final data on initial entrants not yet available.