Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department provided guidance to the authors of the Pearson Edexcel textbook, The Middle East: Conflict, Crisis and Change, before publication of that book.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The content of textbooks is a matter for individual publishers. The Department is aware concerns have been raised about this textbook and that Pearson has launched an independent review and will take action if necessary.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to encourage more working class young people to take up STEM subjects at university.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
To maintain a dynamic and growing economy, the government is committed to tackling science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills shortages. The department is encouraging more students into STEM education and training, at all stages, from primary school to higher education (HE).
To support more students to take STEM subjects at university, the government has increased investment in maths and digital subjects within schools, including a new post-16 maths premium and a new £84 million programme to improve the teaching of computing. Both of these initiatives aim to increase the number of young people taking these subjects, from all backgrounds.
This school-level investment programme is complemented by increasing efforts from the university sector to encourage more disadvantaged students to enter HE. The Office for Students (as the regulator for HE in England) has a duty to promote equality of opportunity in relation to access and participation in HE. In 2018, 18 year olds from disadvantaged backgrounds were proportionally 52% more likely to enter full-time HE than in 2009.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many women have started courses in STEM subjects at university in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes data on students enrolled in higher education in the UK. Statistics broken down by subject area and sex are available in Figure 14 of the Statistical Bulletin published in January 2019, which can be found at the following link:
https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/17-01-2019/sb252-higher-education-student-statistics/subjects.
Over the academic years 2013-14 to 2017-18, the number of female entrants to science subjects in UK higher education institutions (HEIs) has increased by 10% from 218,375 to 240,285. The number of male entrants to science subjects in UK HEIs has increased by 4% from 196,960 to 204,065.
Notes
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of young people taking engineering qualifications (a) before and (b) after the 2018 Year of Engineering.
Answered by Nick Gibb
At GCSE, the majority of students study mathematics and science, and entries to computer science continue to rise quicker than for any other subject. In 2018, 32,879 pupils aged 16-18 entered A level physics and 82,070 entered A levels in mathematics (including all mathematics subjects). Computer science A level saw the biggest increase in entries for any A level subject in 2018, up 26% (to 9,506) since the previous year. 780 pupils aged 16-18 entered an applied general qualification in engineering, 1,238 entered a Tech level in engineering, 2,319 entered a Tech certificate in engineering, and 7,929 entered a level 2 vocational qualification in engineering.
It is too early to assess the impact that the Year of Engineering has had on the take-up of engineering qualifications. However, it is positive that the Government’s broader science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programmes are having a positive impact on STEM progression, and the Department hopes that the efforts of the year will continue to add to this positive trend.