HC Deb 18 June 2003 vol 407 cc321-2W
Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether the letter referred to in paragraph 5 of Page 19 of Widening Participation in higher education from the Secretary of State to Office for Fair Access setting out guidance on applying the statutory framework for access agreements and covering an institution's milestones for assessing progress in widening participation will include admissions from(a) type of schools and (b) family social class as such milestones. [118065]

Alan Johnson

"Widening participation in higher education" made clear that it would be for "each university to decide on the milestones that are appropriate to its circumstances that it wishes to include in the access agreements".

Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, pursuant to the reply of 3 June from the Minister for Higher Education to the honourable Member for Hertsmere, ref 115686, how he expects that the Office for Fair Access will assess the milestones to be adopted by individual institutions. [118268]

Alan Johnson

"Widening participation in higher education" made clear that it would be for "each university to decide on the milestones that are appropriate to its circumstances that it wishes to include in the access agreements".

Mr. Willis

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students have been wrongly informed by UCAS that they have lost their place at the university of their choice for 2003/04. [117871]

Alan Johnson

[holding answer 9 June 2003]: We have been advised by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) that no students were wrongly informed that they had lost their place at the university of their choice. 18,000 prospective students were informed by UCAS in May that it had not received from them the necessary confirmations of acceptance of offers from institutions, and that a further 10 days were available for that process to be completed. The latest data available to UCAS indicates that the number of unconfirmed offers is now lower than at the corresponding point last year.