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Schools
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of the effects in Stroud constituency of (a) abolishing grant-maintained schools, (b) changing school admission arrangements and (c) balloting parents on grammar schools. [193502]
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Mr. Miliband: We have made no such assessments. Although we monitor national implementation of policies, it is for local education authorities to assess the impact of any changes on their individual areas, and to plan accordingly.
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what representations he has received regarding secondary school capacity on Canvey Island; and if he will make a statement. [193511]
Mr. Miliband: In addition to the representations made previously by the hon. Member, we have received correspondence from one parent from Canvey Island in respect of Essex Local Education Authority's (LEA) initial consultation about secondary education on the island.
It is for each LEA to balance the supply of places in its area, to ensure schools serve the needs of their local communities and provide good quality education in the most cost effective way.
If the LEA decides to proceed with a reorganisation of local schools it will have to publish statutory proposals, and there will be an opportunity for those affected to submit objections and comments for consideration. The final decision on any proposals would be for the local School Organisation Committee (SOC) or, if the SOC cannot reach a unanimous decision, an independent schools adjudicator. The Secretary of State has no role in such matters.
Sixth Forms
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what evidence his Department has evaluated which demonstrates public support for new school sixth forms as proposed in the Five Year Plan issued in July; and if he will make a statement. [191817]
Dr. Howells: We are not aware of a formal study of community preferences for school sixth forms. However, area inspections, for example, show that there is oversubscription at popular and successful school sixth forms across the country. They also report a substantial exodus of 16–18 students from areas where there is little choice of good 16–19 provision to independent or out-of-borough maintained school sixth forms.
Mr. Chidgey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what plans he has to align college and school sixth form funding. [192025]
Dr. Howells
[holding answer 19 October 2004]: For the academic year 2003/04, base funding rates per qualification increased by 3 per cent. for school sixth forms and by 4.5 per cent. for further education colleges on a broadly comparable basis. In 2004/05, funding rates for colleges meeting their targets increased by 5 per cent., while those for school sixth forms rose by 4 per cent. Details of our spending plans for further education between 2005–06 and 2007–08 will be published at the time of release of the grant letter to the Learning and Skills Council.
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Student Loan Company
Mr. Rendel: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many students applied for loans from the Student Loan Company for the current academic year prior to July; [191624]
(2) how many students who applied for loans from the Student Loan Company prior to July are yet to receive their loans for the current academic year; [191625]
(3) how many students who have applied for loans from the Student Loan Company are yet to receive their loans for the current academic year. [191626]
Dr. Howells [holding answer 15 October 2004]: Some 521,000 applications from new and continuing students were made on or before 2 July 2004 (which is the published deadline for new applications).
All applicants who submitted a fully and properly completed application form on or before 2 July should receive, shortly after their university or college has confirmed their attendance, either a fully-assessed loan payment or an interim payment (under our contingency arrangements for continuing students).
Over 275,000 applications have been received after the 2 July, of which 96,000 are still being processed. As is the case every year, a significant number of students have applied after the published deadlines (some 90,000 applications have been received since early September). Local authorities and the Student Loans Company have never been able to guarantee payment at the start of term to late applicants. As in previous years, the Department has written to higher education institutions asking them to be supportive of students who do not have loans in place at the start of term.
Theft and Fraud
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what his estimate is of the cost of theft and fraud to (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies in each year since 1997. [191427]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The estimated cost of theft and fraud to the Department (excluding the Department's non-departmental public bodies) for the years 2001–02, 2002–03 and 2003–04 is as follows:
| (£000) | |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 249,732 |
| 2002–03 | 234,138 |
| 2003–04 | 213,037 |
All cases of fraud or alleged fraud were investigated by the Department's Special Investigations Unit. This unit is staffed by fully trained, professionally qualified fraud investigators.
Tuition Fees
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the total fee income from (a) tuition fees and (b) top up tuition fees was in (i) 1999–2000 and (ii) 2000–01; and if he will make a statement. [191307]
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Dr. Howells: The following table shows estimated income to English higher education institutions from standard fees:
| Financial year | £ millions(23) |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 697 |
| 2000–01 | 714 |
(23) The fee income estimates do not include income from postgraduate students funded through the Research Councils.
Provisions in the Higher Education Act 2004 permit higher education institutions to vary the fees they charge full-time undergraduates to a maximum of £3,000 per annum with effect from the 2006 academic year. Fees for part-time and postgraduate students are currently unregulated; nothing in the Act changes that.
University Admissions
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what use he expects the Office for Fair Access to make of the benchmarks for university admissions published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency; and if he will publish the guidance he has given to the director general of the Office for Fair Access. [192931]
Dr. Howells: It is up to the director of Fair Access what use he makes of the benchmarks published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency. We first published the draft letter of guidance from the Secretary of State to the director in February 2004, with a revised draft in July 2004. The final version will be available shortly.
University Drop-out Rate
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many students studying first degrees dropped out of their studies (a) at university and (b) in the first year of their studies at university in each year since 1997; [191496]
(2) what the (a) drop-out rate and (b) number of students dropping out in the (i) first, (ii) second and (iii) third year of study at each university was in each year since 1997. [191497]
Dr. Howells: The available information on the non-continuation of students beyond the first year in each university, and the projected course non-completion rate in each university is contained in "Performance Indicators in Higher Education in the UK". The publication was produced by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) up until the current year when the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) took over publication. The latest edition was published by HESA in September 2004.
The figures cover full time first degree courses only and show, for each individual HE institution in the UK, the numbers and proportion of entrants who fail to complete their course. Copies of the publication are available for students starting courses in each year from 1996–97 to 2001–02. Copies of the publication covering data up to 1999–2000 are available from the House Library. Additionally, the publications up to and including figures for 2000–01, can be found on the HEFCE website (http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs) and the publication for the most recent year can be found on the
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HESA website (http://www.hesa.ac.uk/press/pr78/pr78.htm). For full time first degree entrants at UK institutions in 2001–02, table 3a shows that around 27,000 (9.0 per cent.) students did not continue beyond the first year and table 5 shows the number of students projected to not complete over the whole course is around 42,000 (14.1 per cent.).
No data are held covering those students who drop out of their course after two or three years.
Figures published in 2004 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that the UK has one of the lowest non-completion rates among OECD countries.
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps he is taking to improve course completion rates for first degrees at universities. [191503]
Dr. Howells: The national rate of non-completion for those full-time students starting first degree courses in 2001–02 is 14. per cent. compared with 15 per cent. for the cohort starting in 2000–01. This represents one of the highest completion rates amongst OECD countries and we are determined to maintain this level of performance.
We have asked the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to bear down on non-completion and their national co-ordination team, Action on Access, is working with institutions to improve retention rates and to spread good practice from those institutions with low drop-out rates and good access figures. In addition, the £273 million which HEFCE has allocated to institutions in 2004–05 for widening access and improving retention recognises some of the additional costs of supporting students from non-traditional backgrounds and those who are less well prepared for higher education.
Research indicates that the reasons for non-completion are many and varied, but one factor is incompatibility between the student and their course or institution. It is vital that potential higher education (HE) students have the right information on which tobase sound decisions. This is why we have worked with the National Union of Students to develop a new guide to HE, linked to the new Aimhigher portal, which will help students search for information about any aspect of HE. We are working with HEFCE to develop a range of published information about the quality and standards of institutions' programmes and a National Student Survey. Both will give students better information to help them make informed choices about where and what to study.
Another factor which has been associated with non-completion is financial hardship. In addition to statutory student support, discretionary support through the Access to Learning Fund is also available as a safety net for vulnerable students. The Access to Learning Fund is administered by Higher Education Institutions and provides additional non-repayable grant support to help students access and remain in higher education.
From 2006–7, as a consequence of commitments made during the passage of the Higher Education Bill, we propose to ensure that students entering higher
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education will receive up to £2,700 in up-front support. We also intend to raise the levels of maintenance loan to meet the basic living costs of the mid-range student, in response to the recent Student Income and Expenditure Survey. Additionally, institutions will, under the terms of access agreements, be required to provide further financial help to poorer students in the form of bursaries.
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what changes in the methodology for the compiling of data for the non-completion rate for full-time students starting first degree courses were made between 2001–02 and 2002–03; and what the effect of those changes was. [191505]
Dr. Howells: Full details of the changes to the methodology for non-completion are available from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) website at www.hesa.ac.uk/pi in the documents "Changes to PIs 2002/03" and "Annex C: Projected Outcomes". In summary, non-completion is one of the categories of the projected outcomes. These outcomes are derived by linking students from one year to the next to create a matrix of possible outcomes which is then used to calculate the projected outcomes. For the most recent projected outcomes, which cover students starting first degree courses in 2001–02, changes were made to (a) the method of linking students and (b) the categories used in the matrix. The effect of the changes to the linking on the national figures is quite small. Some institutions show changes that appear relatively large, but these are mainly the small institutions where relatively large fluctuations are common. Similarly, the effect of the changes to the matrix at national level is small, and for most institutions there is no discernible effect.
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