silhouette 04
 

20 February 2008

HE student retention in England (House of Commons Public Accounts Committee Report)


MPs should be applauding the work of those universities which are giving new opportunities to students from non-traditional backgrounds and which have managed to ensure that continuation rates have held up and are among the best in the OECD, the university think-tank Million+ has said.

“This report should not be used to attack the principle of widening participation but the Government does need to commission research to ensure that students and universities have the support they need, particularly for those from non-traditional backgrounds and for mature and part-time students.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

  1. The PAC (Public Accounts Committee) Report makes comparison with 2001/02 and the figures submitted by NAO (National Audit Office) relate to 04/05, i.e. these are old statistics and many HEIs will have improved their strategies. Even HEIs with lower continuation rates often performed better than their benchmark
  2. Although the report does not say so, it provides further evidence that HEIs which recruit widening participation students and students from under-represented groups are taking more risks but offering more life chances for students who would otherwise not have been able to access higher education
  3. Information on the reasons why students withdraw is regarded by the PAC as being unreliable
  4. There is a substantial variation between HEIs in the proportion of students with disabilities who actually receive DLA and this does need to be investigated
  5. Continuation rates have stayed the same even though participation has increased from circa 40% to 43%
  6. The rate for ‘drop-out’ of home students at English institutions remains at 15% – it rises to 22% if EU and overseas students are included
  7. There is a higher estimated graduation rate in the UK than in most other OECD countries
  8. The report refers to the £800M received by HEIs as part of their teaching grant to improve participation and suggests that Hefce should be working with HEIs to improve their strategies; universities have made clear that the real costs of widening participation students is more than currently allowed; furthermore WP monies have been top-sliced from the teaching funding by Hefce
  9. There is a higher rate of withdrawal of mature students (14%) compared to young entrants (6.8%) and this will disproportionably impact on HEIs which recruit over 21 year-olds
  10. The report accepts that information about part-time students is unreliable and continuation is poorer but this is judged against a 6 year period for the completion of study when it is already known that part-time students often take longer to complete
  11. The report is silent on the impact of student funding regimes and provides no analysis as to the real costs to HEIs of supporting the most ‘at risk’ students

For further information and comment contact Pam Tatlow, Chief Executive of Million+ on 07795 645241 / 020 7717 1655