Statistics on Higher Education

Access

The issue of access has been one which, due to the perceived longevity of the British class structure, has always been a prevalent one for UK HE, particularly with regard to admission to the ancient universities, which, it is thought remains the preserve of the upper classes.

As the History/Size/Shape and Structure page of this Statistics section shows the major growth in HE, even post-War, was in Teacher Training and Further Education.

Though Social classes IV-VI may have had an increased access to HE, it was predominantly outside of the university context—at least until the creation of the ‘New Universities’ (and thus the university participation levels, relative to Teacher Training and many aspects of FE, are essentially an issue of semantics). Furthermore, though the total number of students in FTE HE had effectively tripled by 1990, and quintupled by 1997, the participation of social classes IV-VI relative to classes I-III remained much the same: the entire system was expanded rather than the access to it being broadened in favour of those traditionally unable to access it.

With the rise of part-time, flexible modes of study, coupled with the government’s lifelong learning agenda, university study will no longer be confined to young people, as more and more people combine study with work and domestic responsibilities. How the 2004 Higher Education Act, and resultant higher tuition fees, will impact on this remains to be seen.

Figure 1

Figure 2

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And the real expansion of access to HE during the period 1980-1997, the real growth in numbers, has been in women students, rather than a particular social class. The most striking feature of HE in the 20th century must be women’s increased participation in HE. This came around as a result of social and economic changes, but some British Universities denied admitting women to degrees until the mid 20th century – 1947 in the case of the University of Cambridge. Indeed, as the current UCAS statistics show at the bottom of the page, numbers of women students now are above those of men, as the following table indicates when taken in conjunction with Figure 2.

Figure 4

Current statistics ( www.ucas.ac.uk/figures/ucasdata/socio/)

from ‘managerial’ classes’ – thought participation rates from under-represented groups are increasing.

The HESA website shows the most recent student information by ethnicity, gender and wider criteria. See http://www.hesa.ac.uk/holisdocs/pubinfo/stud.htm for more information

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