20 July 2006

Eighth set of higher education performance indicators published

Since 1999, the four UK funding bodies have published annual performance indicators (PIs) to provide robust and useful management information for higher education institutions on, for example, student completion rates and employment of graduates.

The performance indicators are available on the Higher Education Statistics Agency web-site: www.hesa.ac.uk/pi

This year's PIs, which are based on data from 2003-04 and 2004-05, show small improvements in some areas, and a lack of progress in others. The proportion of full-time first degree students who receive the Disabled Students Allowance has risen for the third year running, from 2.6 per cent in 2002-03 to 3.6 per cent in 2004-05. There has also been a small rise (around 1 per cent) in mature students from neighbourhoods with low rates of participation in higher education. But there has been a slight fall in the percentage of young entrants coming from state schools, from 86.8 per cent to 86.7 per cent.

The non-continuation indicators ('drop-out rates') have increased slightly since last year: the percentage projected to leave with no qualifications is 14.9 per cent for those starting in 2003-04, compared with 14.4 per cent for 2002-03 starters. However, since 1999 the number of students starting full-time degrees in UK HE has increased by over 10 per cent from 284,000 to 319,000, while the projected non-completion rate of 14.9 per cent for 2003-04 starters compares with 15.8 per cent for 1999-2000 starters.

John Selby, HEFCE Director for Widening Participation, said:

'The performance indicators provide universities and colleges with key information which they can use to monitor and benchmark their own performance on a range of issues, including widening participation and student retention. Although the overall picture shows a lack of progress compared with last year, there are real improvements by some institutions in, for example, students' success rates. Using these indicators, we are working with Action on Access, the Higher Education Academy and the Equality Challenge Unit to spread good practice so that other institutions can benefit.

We shall also maintain our commitment to raising the aspirations of young people from non-traditional backgrounds, and increasing their success rates in higher education, by working in partnership with the DfES, higher education institutions, further education colleges, schools and other partners.'

The indicators

The performance indicators cover the following areas:

access to higher education - how successful institutions are in recruiting students from under-represented areas and backgrounds
the proportion of students who do not continue beyond the first year at an institution
projected completion rates based on current movement of students between years of study
the proportion of graduates who are employed or undertaking further study six months after graduation
research output.

Full definitions of all these are included in the PI report.

Results

The indicators (with last year's figure in brackets) show that:

86.7 per cent (86.8 per cent) of young entrants to full-time first degree courses in 2004-05 had previously attended state schools or colleges (Table T1a)
28.2 per cent (28.6 per cent) of such students were from lower-socio economic groups - National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC) groups 4 to 7 (Table T1a)
13.7 per cent (13.9 per cent) of such students were from areas classed as having 'low participation in higher education' (Table T1a)
3.6 per cent (3.1 per cent) of full-time first-degree students were in receipt of the Disabled Students' Allowance (Table T7)
7.7 per cent (7.8 per cent) of young entrants and 15.6 per cent (15.4 per cent) of mature entrants to full-time first degree courses in 2002-03 were no longer in higher education after a year (Table T3)
the proportion of graduates employed or studying six months after graduation in 2004-05 is 93.0 per cent (93.1 per cent) (Table E1).

Benchmarks

Because there are such differences between institutions, the average values for the whole of the higher education sector are not necessarily helpful when comparing higher education institutions. Sector averages are therefore calculated for each institution, which take into account some of the factors which contribute to differences between them. The factors are: subject of study, qualifications on entry, age on entry (young or mature). The average that has been adjusted for these factors is called the adjusted sector benchmark.

The benchmark can be used in two ways:

to see how well an institution is performing compared to the HE sector as a whole
to decide whether it is meaningful to compare two institutions.

The benchmarks are not targets and have no financial penalties associated with them.

Notes

1. The performance indicators are published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) on the behalf of the four UK higher education funding bodies (Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW), Scottish Funding Council (SFC), and in Northern Ireland the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL).

2. When looking at year-on-year changes, caution should be used because the differences are generally very small and may reflect changes to student demographics or in some cases changes to data collection.

3. The Performance Indicators Steering Group, which oversees the development and publication of the performance indicators on behalf of the funding bodies and the HE sector, is carrying out a review of the current performance indicators and will publish a consultation in August.