§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the 18–24 age cohort participation in higher education rate was in each region and nation of the UK in(a) 1992, (b) 1997 and (c) 2002. [98450]
§ Margaret Hodge[holding answer 24 February 2003]The Department does not calculate HE participation rates specifically for 18–24 age cohorts.
The Age Participation Index (API) covers HE participation in full-time undergraduate study below the age of 21. The API is not calculated at regional level and the available national figures 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 due largely to high levels of participation in sub-degree level HE courses in these countries.
Age Participation Index (API)1 by country (percentages) Country 1992–93 1997–98 2002–03 England 26 32 2— Wales 29 32 2— Scotland 32 46 2— Northern Ireland 32 44 2— Great Britain 28 33 2— 1 The API is defined as the number of 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. These figures may differ from the individual countries' own APIs, which are derived on a slightly different basis. 2 Not available. A more complete measure of HE participation, the Initial Entry Rate (IER), has been calculated for England since 1999–2000. The IER gives the proportion of young English people entering full or part time HE by the age of 30 and a provisional estimate for 2001–02 is 43 per cent.