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Guide to performance indicators in higher education

Access indicators

Tables T1 and T2 give information about the participation of groups that are under-represented in HE, relative to the population as a whole. Results are shown separately for young and mature students, and for full-timers and part-timers, because each of these groups have different characteristics.

The indicators for young full-time students show, for each institution:

• the percentage who attended a school or college in the state sector;
• the percentage whose parents' occupation is 'skilled manual', 'semi-skilled' or 'unskilled' note 1;
• the percentage who come from a neighbourhood (as denoted by its postcode) which is known to have a low proportion of 18 and 19-year-olds in higher education.

These are in Table T1.

For mature students and for young part-time students, there is just one access indicator, the percentage of entrants who have no previous HE qualification and come from a low-participation neighbourhood, which is given in Table T2.

A further table, Table T7, shows for all students the proportion who are in receipt of the Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) by institution, separately for full-time and part-time undergraduates.

Findings

Nationally, over 90 per cent per cent of 17 year-olds in full-time education attend schools or colleges in the state sector, while 86 per cent of young entrants to first degree courses in 2001-02 had attended such schools. Most institutions take more than 85 per cent of their young entrants from state schools, but nearly a tenth of institutions take less than 70 per cent of their young entrants from state schools.

Skilled manual, semi-skilled or unskilled people form about 50 per cent of the UK population, and just over 25 per cent of young entrants to first degree courses are from these groups. Most institutions take between 15 and 40 per cent of young entrants from these social groups.

About one-third of young people live in ‘low-participation’ areas. Nationally, 13 per cent of young entrants and 14 per cent of mature entrants to full-time first degree courses are from these areas. Most institutions take between 5 and 20 per cent of both their young and mature full-time entrants from low-participation areas.

The proportion of students in receipt of DSA is relatively small. The percentage of such students on full-time undergraduate courses in 2001-02 was 2 per cent, with institutional values ranging from 0 to 14 per cent. For part-time students, apart from those at the Open University, 0.7 per cent were in receipt of DSA. The Open University, with nearly a third of all eligible part-time students, had nearly 2 per cent of its students in receipt of DSA.

Notes

1. Social Classes IIIM, IV and V (skilled manual, semi-skilled, unskilled) are derived from the Standard Occupational Classification 1990.

Last updated 11 December 2003