Widening participation indicators for higher education are improving

05 June 2008

The tenth set of UK higher education (HE) performance indicators, published today (see note 1) shows improvements across all three of the key indicators for widening participation. The indicators are better for the most recent year's data (2006-07) and also show a general trend of improvements over the past five years.

The indicators published today cover both widening participation and non-completion. This year for the first time, a new measure of low-participation neighbourhoods (Participation Of Local Areas (POLAR2)) is being used ^{(see note 2)}. A separate performance indicator on employment will be published in July.

A comparison of some of the key indicators for higher education institutions (HEIs) in England shows:

• The proportion of young entrants (that is, aged 20 or younger) to full-time first degree courses who are from state schools has risen from 86.9 per cent in 2005-06 to 87.2 per cent for 2006-07 (Performance Indicators Table T1a).
• The proportion of young entrants to full-time first degree courses who are from low socio-economic backgrounds (NS-SEC groups 4 to 7) has increased from 29.1 per cent to 29.8 per cent (Table T1a).
• The proportion of young entrants who are from low-participation neighbourhoods has increased from 9.2 per cent to 9.6 per cent between 2005-06 and 2006-07 (Table T1a).
• The indicators for completion do not show any significant changes this year with a projection of 13.9 per cent of students starting full-time first degree courses in 2005-06 neither receiving an award nor transferring to a different institution. This compares to a projected figure of 13.8 per cent for those starting in the previous year (Table 5).
• The proportion of full-time first degree students in receipt of Disabled Students' Allowance has increased 0.3 percentage points from 4.1 per cent in 2005-06 to 4.4 per cent in 2006-07 (Table 7).

How English widening participation indicators have changed in the last five years

Indicator	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07
Percentage of young entrants to full-time first degree courses from low-participation neighbourhoods	n/a	n/a	n/a	9.2	9.6
Percentage of young entrants to full-time first degree courses from state schools	86.4	86.1	85.9	86.9	87.2
Percentage of young entrants to full-time first degree courses from NS-SEC groups 4 to 7	27.9	28.2	27.9	29.1	29.8

Since 1999, the four UK funding bodies have jointly published annual performance indicators to provide robust and useful management information for HEIs. The performance indicators are available on the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) web-site.

All percentages given refer to students registered at English HEIs. Similar figures are available for those registered at Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland HEIs.

Commenting on the performance indicators, HEFCE Chief Executive Professor David Eastwood said:

'Widening participation in higher education is vital to ensuring a fair and equitable society. HEFCE and the higher education sector are determined to increase the number of students entering higher education from under-represented groups. I am pleased to see that we are making some progress in this area, as shown in this year's performance indicators.'

Minister for Higher Education Bill Rammell, said:

'I welcome this year's performance indicators and it is particularly encouraging to see that the proportion of young entrants from the lower socio-economic groups and from state schools has continued to rise and is in fact at their highest ever levels. This comes at a time when there was an expected drop in the number of applicants due to the introduction of variable fees, but which was followed by record levels of acceptances in 2007.

'The figures are welcome confirmation that our work to widen access to higher education is starting to have a real impact, but we must maintain our efforts. It is an economic as well as a social imperative that everyone who has the ability and can benefit from higher education has the opportunity to do so.'

Professor Robin Sibson, Chief Executive of HESA, said:

'The value of the performance indicators depends on their currency and timeliness. The introduction of a new measure of participation neighbourhoods ensures that the indicators keep pace with new background data. Also, the split into two publication tranches has allowed this main set of indicators to be published six weeks earlier than last year.'

The indicators

The performance indicators cover the following areas:

• access to HE (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
• research output.

Full definitions of all these are included in the performance indicators report.

Other results

Other indicators show that:

• The percentage of young full-time first degree entrants not continuing in HE after their first year has remained relatively stable (6.7 per cent for those entering in 2005-06 compared with 6.8 per cent in 2004-05). The corresponding percentage for mature entrants is also relatively stable (14.2 per cent for entrants in 2005-06 compared with 14.0 per cent in 2004-05) (Table 3a).
• The percentages of young and mature full-time undergraduates (excluding first-degree) entrants in 2005-06 not continuing in HE after their first year are both around 17 per cent (Table 3d).
• The percentage of full-time first degree starters in 2005-06 expected to gain a degree is 78 per cent (Table 5).

Benchmarks

The average values for the whole of the HE sector are not necessarily helpful when comparing HEIs because there are wide differences between institutions. Adjusted sector averages are therefore calculated for each institution that take into account some of the factors which contribute to differences between them. The factors are: subject of study; qualifications on entry; and 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 by HEIs and others 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 incentives or penalties associated with them.

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