HC Deb 22 April 2004 vol 420 cc640-1W
Chris Ruane

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the drop out rate was for each(a) higher education and (b) further education institution in the latest year for which figures are available. [157565]

Alan Johnson

For higher education institutions, the available information on non continuation rates is contained in "Performance Indicators in Higher Education", published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). The figures cover full-time first degree courses only, and show, for each individual HE institution in the UK, the numbers and proportion of entrants who failed to complete their course. Copies of the HEFCE publication are available for students starting courses in 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99 and 1999–2000, and are available from the House Library; data for 2000–01 is available from the HEFCE website at http://www.hefce,ac,uk/learning/ perfind/2003/

In Further Education, figures are routinely presented in terms of the percentage of learners who are retained. In-year retention rates for Further Education Institutions in England can be found in the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) publication "Summary Statistics for Further Education Institutions: England 2000/2001", available at http://www.lscdata.gov.uk/ summary statistics/. A printed version of the relevant table showing in-year retention rates for each institution, along with summary information will be placed in the Commons Library.