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4 Mar 2008 : Column 2432W—continued
151 Buckingham Palace road, London
1 Victoria street, London.
All staff are now based in Kingsgate House, Victoria street, London.
Concept House, Newport, South Wales
Nine Mile Point, Newport, South Wales
Harmsworth House, London
Purpose built building in Teddington
The balance of information requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Education: Finance
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what cost-benefit analysis has been made of the decision to reduce funding to equivalent or lower qualification students. [175714]
Bill Rammell: We are not cutting funding to higher education. There is no cost to the Exchequer because we are redistributing funding away from students doing equivalent or lower level qualifications in order to fund more new entrants to higher education than would otherwise be possible. First and foremost, we took this decision as a matter of fairness and social justice, but it also has an economic rationale. The additional lifetime earnings “premium” associated with getting a first degree in this country remains comfortably over £100,000 in today’s prices which makes it among the highest in the developed world. Given that, it is clear that enabling 20,000 more new students (or students progressing to a higher level) to enter higher education will bring considerable long-term benefit to both individuals and the economy, through having a larger number of more highly qualified, more productive workers than would otherwise be the case.
EU Budget
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what lines in the European Union budget are available to fund projects initiated by his Department. [184066]
Bill Rammell:
The UK's allocation of budget line 15 02 of the European Union budget is made available by the European Commission directly to the UK National Agencies for the Lifelong Learning Programme to provide funding to successful applicants for projects under that
programme. Projects are initiated under this funding line by a wide variety of local, regional and national organisations.
Further Education: Crimes of Violence
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how he plans to ensure that further education colleges have in place plans to respond to incidents of violent extremism. [190147]
Bill Rammell: We are consulting on the best way to support colleges in their role in promoting community cohesion, fostering shared values and preventing violent extremism. Given that we believe a differentiated approach is needed so that colleges can develop plans appropriate to their circumstances, we are not proposing to impose an additional monitoring requirement to ensure all have plans for responding to incidents of violent extremism.
We will review the consultation responses and determine what further steps, if any, are needed in this regard.
Our view is that further education colleges’ response to this issue will be best managed by colleges identifying and implementing solutions that work in their particular circumstances, supported by the relevant agencies and by good practice from around the network.
Further Education: Islam
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills when the research undertaken by the Learning and Skills Council on issues faced in engaging young Muslims in further education, referred to in the consultation document, The Role of Further Education Providers in Promoting Community Cohesion, Fostering Shared Values and Preventing Violent Extremism, will be published. [190179]
Bill Rammell: A report on the first phase of this research was published by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) in November 2007 and is available on their website at:
A second phase which is working with student groups to develop resources and more in-depth understanding of the issues faced by Muslim students will be published in summer 2008.
Higher Education: Admissions
Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time (i) students aged 17 to 21 years and (ii) mature students enrolled on higher education courses in each year since 2001. [186610]
Bill Rammell: The latest available outturn information from HESA is shown in the following table.
Comparable outturn figures for 2007/08 will not be available until January 2009, but the latest data from UCAS show record levels of applicants and acceptances for entry to full-time undergraduate courses in 2007 and a further 7 per cent. increase for entry to such courses in
2008 at this stage in the admissions cycle—clear evidence that our policies to increase HE participation are working.
| Entrants to higher education courses by mode of study and age( 1) , postgraduate and undergraduate entrants, UK and overseas domiciles, English higher education institutions( 2) : Academic years 2001/02 to 2006/07 | ||||
| Full-time | Part-time | |||
| Academic year | 17 to 21 | Over 21 | 17 to 21 | Over 21 |
| (1) Excludes a small number of students with an unknown age or an age less than 17, (This was less than 0.6 per cent. in 2006/07). (2 )Excludes the Open University. Note: Figures are on a HESA standard registration population basis and are rounded to the nearest 5. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). | ||||
Higher Education: Applications
Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what criteria his Department uses to define a university applicant as a home or international student; and what account is taken as to whether they have indefinite leave to remain as opposed to exceptional leave to remain. [189267]
Bill Rammell: For student support purposes, a “home” student is a person who can demonstrate a specified connection with the UK and satisfy the other eligibility criteria. The specified connection consists of a combination of residence, immigration and in some cases nationality requirements.
Categories of student who may be eligible include those who on the first day of the first academic year of the course are:
settled in the UK within the meaning of the Immigration Act of 1971 (which includes those with indefinite leave to remain) and
persons awarded leave to enter or remain following a failed asylum application (Exceptional Leave to Enter or Remain, Humanitarian Protection or Discretionary Leave) and their family members.
Both categories are required to have been ordinarily resident in the UK and Islands for the three years prior to the start of their course.
Other categories of students may qualify for tuition fee support or full student support provided they satisfy specific EEA/EC legislation requirements or have been awarded refugee status.
Higher Education: Community Relations
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills when his Department plans to make available the audio-visual material to fight Al-Qa'ida and violent extremism referred to in the consultation document The Role of Further Education Providers in Promoting Community Cohesion, Fostering Shared Values and Preventing Violent Extremism. [190412]
Bill Rammell: Some audio materials are already available. Looking forward, the Department will review the need for further materials following the report of the consultation, working with colleges to make sure support materials in any medium meet their needs.
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills when the Quality and Improvement Agency plans to publish on its Excellence Gateway website the coherent package of support for staff at further education colleges referred to in the consultation document The Role of Further Education Providers in Promoting Community Cohesion, Fostering Shared Values and Preventing Violent Extremism. [190413]
Bill Rammell: The Quality Improvement Agency (QIA) already commissions programmes such as Skills for Life (to improve basic skills levels) and the Post-16 Citizenship Support Programme (to improve quality in the teaching and learning of citizenship that involves national events, networks and teaching materials) to support community cohesion.
QIA is already working to identify appropriate materials from existing support programmes to help providers in work on community cohesion and the final package of materials will reflect the outcomes of the consultation on this, once known.
The consultation closes on 6 May 2008 and once the responses have been analysed, work will begin on pulling together the most appropriate packages of support as defined by sector respondents themselves, for inclusion on the Excellence Gateway.
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what role the Quality and Improvement Agency will play in helping further education colleges to build capacity in developing the risk assessments referred to in the consultation document The Role of Further Education Providers in Promoting Community Cohesion, Fostering Shared Values and Preventing Violent Extremism. [190414]
Bill Rammell: The new FE improvement body to be established following the merger of the Quality Improvement Agency and the Centre of Excellence in Leadership will provide a single point of access for existing and future support materials via the Excellence Gateway to underpin the role that FE providers are being asked to take in promoting community cohesion, fostering shared values and preventing violent extremism.
The new body’s remit will bring together the functions of CEL and QIA, with a strong focus on it being a strategic commissioning body to support organisational development and improve standards of teaching and learning for the benefit of learners, employers and the wider community.
QIA is already working to identify appropriate materials from existing support programmes to help providers in work on community cohesion and the final package of materials will reflect the outcomes of the consultation on this, once known.
Higher Education: Student Wastage
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many undergraduates have failed to complete their course in each of the last 10 years. [189382]
Bill Rammell: The latest available non-completion rates are given in the following table:
| Table 1: Proportion of full-time first degree starters who are projected to neither obtain an award nor transfer to another institution | |
| Proportion (percentage) | |
| Source: Performance Indicators in Higher Education, published by HESA. Notes: 1. Figures from the 1996-97 academic year have been excluded due to a change in methodology between 1996-97 and 1997-98. 2. Figures for years earlier than 1996-97 are not available. | |
Figures for the 2005-06 academic year will be available later this year. According to the figures published by the OECD, the overall completion rate for Type A (first degree equivalent) courses in UK universities and colleges of higher education is amongst the highest in the OECD countries (the UK ranks 5th out of 23 countries who report data in this area).
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills which 10 graduate courses have the highest non-completion rate from highest to lowest in each of the last 10 years. [189384]
Bill Rammell: Non-completion rates are not broken down by degree subject. However a sector-wide non-continuation rate is provided for each year, which is broken down by subject of study. The non-continuation rate is the proportion of entrants to full-time first degree courses who are no longer in higher education after one year of study. The rates for young entrants are shown in the table.
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