Asked by: Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of making additional indicators of pupils’ disadvantage and under-representation in higher education accessible to universities in order to support their widening participation and access work.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Widening access and participation in higher education (HE) is a priority for the government. This means that everyone with the capability to succeed in HE should have the opportunity to participate, regardless of their background.
The government has made progress in ensuring universities are open to all, with record rates of disadvantaged 18 year olds in HE. However, we are aware that more needs to be done to support access and participation in HE, so it is vital that we continue to build on this progress.
HE providers need to use good quality and meaningful data to identify disadvantage and under-representation in order to effectively address disparities in access and participation in HE.
We encourage institutions to use a range of measures to identify disadvantage and under-representation, including individual-level indicators, area data (such as Participation of Local Areas data, Index of Multiple Deprivation or ACORN), school data, intersectional data such as the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service's (UCAS) Multiple Equality Measure and participation in outreach activities. The department is continuing to work with the Office for Students, UCAS and sector representatives to further explore how we can support universities to improve and enhance access to data.
Asked by: Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of how the sharing with universities of additional indicators of applicants’ disadvantage and under-representation in higher education could enable universities to make further progress on increasing access and participation among disadvantaged applicants.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Widening access and participation in higher education (HE) is a priority for the government. This means that everyone with the capability to succeed in HE should have the opportunity to participate, regardless of their background.
The government has made progress in ensuring universities are open to all, with record rates of disadvantaged 18 year olds in HE. However, we are aware that more needs to be done to support access and participation in HE, so it is vital that we continue to build on this progress.
HE providers need to use good quality and meaningful data to identify disadvantage and under-representation in order to effectively address disparities in access and participation in HE.
We encourage institutions to use a range of measures to identify disadvantage and under-representation, including individual-level indicators, area data (such as Participation of Local Areas data, Index of Multiple Deprivation or ACORN), school data, intersectional data such as the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service's (UCAS) Multiple Equality Measure and participation in outreach activities. The department is continuing to work with the Office for Students, UCAS and sector representatives to further explore how we can support universities to improve and enhance access to data.
Asked by: Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools in England are in areas with an annual mean nitrogen dioxide level greater than 40 μg/m3.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools in England are in areas with an annual mean PM2.5 level greater than 10 μg/m3.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many schools in England are in areas with an annual mean PM10 level greater than 20 μg/m3.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The information requested is not held centrally.
Asked by: Edward Miliband (Labour - Doncaster North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people from the Doncaster North constituency entered higher education institutions in the latest year for which figures are available; and how that figure compares with other constituencies.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The Higher Education Statistics Agency collects and publishes statistics on students enrolled at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The latest statistics available refer to the 2016/17 academic year and are available at the following link: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/11-01-2018/sfr247-higher-education-student-statistics.
The table below provides counts of entrants to higher education courses at UK HEIs who were living in the Doncaster North parliamentary constituency prior to commencing their studies.
Entrants to higher education domiciled in Doncaster North constituency prior to their studies, by level of study UK Higher Education Institutions | |
Academic year 2016/17 | |
| Doncaster North parliamentary constituency |
Postgraduate (research) | 10 |
Postgraduate (taught) | 150 |
First degree | 430 |
Other undergraduate | 60 |
Total | 655 |
1) Figures in this table are rounded to the nearest multiple of five; figures may not sum to totals.
2) Constituency is derived from the student's postcode prior to study.
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service publish data on the proportion of 18 year olds entering full-time undergraduate higher education from each parliamentary constituency. The latest data is contained in Figure 4.8 of their 2017 End of Cycle report: https://www.ucas.com/file/137236/download?token=LtrRkIaK.
For the 2017 application cycle, the entry rate for 18 year olds from Doncaster North constituency to full-time undergraduate study was 21.1%. This compares to an entry rate for England of 33.3%.