Participation and potential participation in UK higher education

Abstract

Chapters 2 and 3 have charted the marked increase in participation in higher education in the United Kingdom over the past half-century. This increase has been particularly great since 1990. The data of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) (UCAS 1999 and UCAS 2002) show a 23 per cent increase in full-time home acceptances to degree courses in the period 1994-2000, with a corresponding 19 per cent increase in HND acceptances. This is despite the reductions observed in 1997-8 of 3.5 per cent and 1.5 per cent, for degree and HND courses respectively, this being the year prior to the introduction of fees. Part-time students have also increased in number, from 131,000 starting courses in 1994-5 to 196,000 starting in 1999-2000. The overall age participation index (API) – the percentage of the age cohort who take part in higher education – has increased steadily over the last six decades, from 2 per cent in 1940 and 8.5 per cent in 1962, to 32 per cent in 1995 (Dearing 1997) and 36 per cent in 2000.