§ Mr. BoswellTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many students dropped out from undergraduate degree courses in each of the past five years, broken down by the year of their course in which the drop-out occurred. [131728]
§ Alan JohnsonThe available information on the non-continuation of students beyond the first year in each university, and the projected course non-completion rate in each university is contained in "Performance Indicators in Higher Education in the UK" published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, a copy of which is available from the House library. The latest edition, published in December 2002, gives figures for students starting full-time degree courses in the United Kingdom in 1999/00. No data are held covering those students who drop out of their course after two or three years.
759WThe latest figures are given below. Corresponding data for 2000/01 will be published later in the autumn.
Completion rates of HE students in UK HE institutions Full-time first degree entrants Students starting courses in academic year: Percentage not continuing to 2nd year Percentage who failed to complete the course 1996/97 10 18 1997/98 9 17 1998/99 10 17 1999/2000 10 17 Nationally, the non-completion rate has remained broadly the same at 17–18 per cent. since 1991–92, a period of considerable expansion of student numbers.
Figures published in 2003 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that the UK has one of the lowest non-completion rates among OECD countries.