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Higher Education Students

Mr. Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list, in respect of each of the last five years, by (a) age category, (b) mode of study, (c) gender, (d) ethnic origin and (e) socio-economic group, the total number of students (i) applying to enter higher education and (ii) entering higher education. [137372]

Mr. Wicks: The latest available data, covering students applying to full-time and sandwich undergraduate courses via the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), are shown in the following tables (a) to (d). Final figures for autumn 2000 entry will be released by UCAS in January 2001. UCAS does not cover applicants or accepted applicants to part-time courses. The available data, collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency, on entrants to part-time undergraduate courses is shown in table (e). The figures show that, for example, the numbers of students from ethnic minority and working class backgrounds have remained unchanged or increased a little since the introduction of fees, comparing 1996 (the year before fees were announced) with 1999. Applications generally rose in 1997 after the changes in university finance from 1998 were announced in July 1997.

UK domiciled applicants and accepted applicants to full-time and sandwich undergraduate courses in the UK via UCAS Institutions in the UK (a) By genderThousand

	Year of entry
	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Applicants
Men	179.6	175.5	190.0	184.1	182.4
Women	190.1	189.4	208.3	205.5	206.3
Total	369.7	364.9	398.3	389.6	388.7
Accepted applicants
Men	132.1	131.3	146.5	142.8	143.6
Women	133.4	137.0	156.9	155.4	159.4
Total	265.5	268.3	303.3	298.2	303.1

(b) By age group

	Year of entry
	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Applicants
Under 21	272.1	274.2	300.9	303.8	306.8
21 and over	97.6	90.7	97.4	85.9	81.8
Total	369.7	364.9	398.3	389.6	388.7
Accepted applicants
Under 21	204.5	209.1	237.5	239.6	245.6
21 and over	61.1	59.2	65.8	58.6	57.4
Total	265.5	268.3	303.3	298.2	303.1

17 Nov 2000 : Column: 830W

(c) By ethnic group

	Year of entry
	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Applicants
Asian Bangladeshi	2.2	2.3	2.5	2.6	2.9
Asian Chinese	3.0	3.1	3.5	3.6	3.6
Asian Indian	13.3	14.1	15.3	15.9	16.6
Asian Pakistani	7.8	8.5	9.1	9.5	9.9
Asian Other	4.4	4.2	4.6	4.6	4.6
Black African	7.2	7.1	7.7	7.1	7.1
Black Caribbean	4.7	4.5	4.8	3.5	4.5
Black Other	2.0	1.9	2.3	2.4	2.5
White	303.4	293.5	315.1	300.9	299.6
Other	5.4	5.7	6.4	6.3	6.7
Not known	16.5	20.1	27.0	32.4	30.6
Total	369.7	364.9	398.3	389.6	388.7
Accepted applicants
Asian Bangladeshi	1.5	1.5	1.7	1.8	2.0
Asian Chinese	2.2	2.4	2.7	2.7	2.9
Asian Indian	9.5	10.3	11.7	12.1	13.0
Asian Pakistani	5.1	5.7	6.4	6.6	7.1
Asian Other	3.0	2.9	3.3	3.3	3.4
Black African	4.1	4.3	4.8	4.5	4.7
Black Caribbean	2.7	2.8	3.2	2.9	3.0
Black Other	1.2	1.2	1.5	1.6	1.7
White	221.4	219.4	243.6	234.6	237.2
Other	3.7	3.9	4.6	4.6	5.0
Unknown	11.2	13.9	19.8	23.4	23.0
Total	265.5	268.3	303.3	298.2	303.1

(d) By social class

	Year of entry
	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Applicants
Professional	50.2	49.9	48.4	47.0	46.5
Intermediate	140.1	139.0	150.3	147.3	144.8
Skilled non-manual	42.4	43.0	49.6	47.1	47.1
Skilled manual	61.9	58.2	60.7	58.9	58.5
Partly skilled	28.8	28.3	32.2	31.0	30.8
Unskilled	7.6	7.0	7.9	7.3	7.5
Unknown	38.6	39.4	49.2	51.0	53.5
Total	369.7	364.9	398.3	389.6	388.7
Accepted applicants
Professional	38.7	39.3	39.6	38.5	38.9
Intermediate	103.4	105.0	117.4	115.6	115.7
Skilled non-manual	30.3	31.3	37.3	35.6	36.3
Skilled manual	42.5	40.9	44.8	44.2	44.5
Partly skilled	19.8	19.9	23.5	22.7	23.1
Unskilled	5.0	4.9	5.6	5.3	5.5
Unknown	25.8	27.1	35.0	36.6	39.1
Total	265.5	268.3	303.3	298.2	303.1

17 Nov 2000 : Column: 831W

(e) UK domiciled entrants to part-time undergraduate courses in the UK⁽⁸⁾Thousand

	Entrants
1995-96	259.2
1996-97	271.9
1997-98	265.6
1998-99	266.3
1999-2000	272.8

⁽⁸⁾ Including undergraduate courses in HE institutions, FE institutions and the Open University

Schools Inspectorate

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what restrictions exist on the future disclosure of material held in his Department's files on former members of the Schools Inspectorate. [137914]

Ms Estelle Morris: My Department's policy is that personal information will be disclosed only where there is a legal duty to do so or where the individual concerned has given their consent.

Learning and Skills Councils

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proportion of appointees (a) to the National Learning and Skills Council and (b) to local learning and skills councils have declared recent political activity, broken down by involvement in their respective parties. [137853]

Mr. Wicks [holding answer 13 November 2000]: Appointments to the Learning and Skills Council are still being made. Once this process is complete I shall write to the hon. Member with this information and place a copy of my letter in the Library.

Engineering Degrees

Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many students were studying for engineering degrees in (a) 1996-97, (b) 1997-98, (c) 1998-99 and (d) 1999-2000; and what proportion this represents of those studying for degrees in each year. [138306]

Mr. Wicks: The information requested is shown in the following table.

Number and percentage of full-time students enrolled on engineering/technology first degrees in publicly funded higher education institutions in the United Kingdom: 1996-97 to 1999-2000Thousand

	All students on first degrees	Of which those on engineering/technology courses
Academic year	Number(9)	Number(9)	Percentage
1999-2000	908.3	74.7	8.2
1998-99	906.3	77.3	8.5
1997-98	899.7	80.0	8.9
1996-97	875.1	81.3	9.3

⁽⁹⁾ Headcount of full-time students on first degree courses

Source:

Higher Education Statistics Agency--individual student record

17 Nov 2000 : Column: 832W

Schools (Suffolk)

Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many (a) pupils and (b) teachers there were in Suffolk in (i) primary, (ii) middle and (iii) upper schools for (A) the latest period for which figures are available, (B) 12 months previously, (C) 24 months previously, (D) 36 months previously and (E) 48 months previously. [138541]

Ms Estelle Morris: The information requested is shown in the following table.

Full-time equivalent (FTE) number of pupils and teachers⁽¹⁰⁾ in Suffolk LEA

January	FTE pupils(11)	FTE teachers(12)
Maintained Primary(13)
2000	45,813	2,074.1
1999	45,899	2,082.9
1998	45,678	2,062.0
1997	45,561	2,046.0
1996	45,084	2,022.1
Middle Deemed Primary
2000	--	--
1999	--	--
1998	--	--
1997	--	--
1996	--	--
	Middled Deemed Secondary
2000	17,833	942.1
1999	17,562	927.6
1998	17,203	913.5
1997	16,637	886.2
1996	16,283	884.6
Maintained Secondary(13)
2000	34,117	2,129.0
1999	33,378	2,132.6
1998	32,905	2,119.0
1997	32,970	2,109.3
1996	32,757	2,083.4

⁽¹⁰⁾ Qualified teachers only

⁽¹¹⁾ This is all pupils on the school registers (counting each part-time pupil as 0.5)

⁽¹²⁾ FTE teachers includes full-time teachers and full-time equivalent of part-time teachers. For the purpose of reckoning the full-time equivalent of part-time teachers (FTE), each teachers part-time service is evaluated as a proportion of a full school week (32.5 hours).

⁽¹³⁾ Excluding middle deemed primary

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