Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students aged 24 or over have enrolled on courses at Level 3 or above in (a) healthcare, (b) social care and (c) business and accounting in each year since 2010.
Answered by Anne Milton
Students aged 24 or over on courses at level 3 or above are involved in either further or higher education.
Further Education (FE):
All FE participants aged 24 and over on level 3+ courses in England:
| 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 |
Learner participation | 374,900 | 375,600 | 424,400 | 308,600 | 284,000 | 316,000 |
Notes:
We do not hold data on FE participants within each sector to exactly match the categories requested ((a) healthcare, (b) social care and (c) business and accounting). We do publish data for apprenticeship starts by sector subject area (2011/12 to 2016/16 provisional) at level 3+ (advanced and higher apprenticeships) albeit with a 25+ age group in the following tool: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/650226/201617_Oct_Apps_Level_SSA_And_Framework_Data_Tool_FINAL.xlsx.
Higher Education:
Information on participation in higher education at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Further Education Colleges (FECs) in England has been provided in the attached table. The subject breakdowns requested are not standard categories in the Joint Academic Coding System (JACS), and so counts on this basis could only be provided at disproportionate cost. More information on JACS is available here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/jacs.
There were a further 13,725 students aged 24 or over enrolled on first-degree courses. Of these students,17,060 were enrolled on other undergraduate courses recorded by the Higher Education Statistics Agency as having participated on Higher Education courses designated for student support at Alternative Providers in the academic year 2015/16. Comparable information for earlier years is not available.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students have taken out advanced learner loans in each year since they were introduced.
Answered by Anne Milton
The table below provides an overview of the approved applications received for Advanced Learner Loans since their introduction in the 2013/14 academic year to the latest published data for the 2016/17 academic year.
Academic year | Number of approved applications |
2013/14 | 56,220 |
2014/15 | 56,870 |
2015/16 | 71,190 |
2016/17 | 82,290 |
Notes:
1. 24+ Advanced Learning Loans were expanded to those aged 19 and over starting in the 2016/17 academic year and were renamed to ‘Advanced Learner Loans’.
2. All figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
3. Final application data is as at 30 September for each academic year, starting from 30/09/14 and ending with 30/09/17.
Data on Advanced Learner Loans from the 2013/14 academic year onwards is published by the department and available at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/further-education.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students aged 24 or over have enrolled on courses at Level 3 or above in each year since 2010.
Answered by Anne Milton
Students aged 24 or over on courses at level 3 or above are involved in either further or higher education.
Further Education (FE):
All FE participants aged 24 and over on level 3+ courses in England:
| 2010/11 | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 |
Learner participation | 374,900 | 375,600 | 424,400 | 308,600 | 284,000 | 316,000 |
Notes:
We do not hold data on FE participants within each sector to exactly match the categories requested ((a) healthcare, (b) social care and (c) business and accounting). We do publish data for apprenticeship starts by sector subject area (2011/12 to 2016/16 provisional) at level 3+ (advanced and higher apprenticeships) albeit with a 25+ age group in the following tool: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/650226/201617_Oct_Apps_Level_SSA_And_Framework_Data_Tool_FINAL.xlsx.
Higher Education:
Information on participation in higher education at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Further Education Colleges (FECs) in England has been provided in the attached table. The subject breakdowns requested are not standard categories in the Joint Academic Coding System (JACS), and so counts on this basis could only be provided at disproportionate cost. More information on JACS is available here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/jacs.
There were a further 13,725 students aged 24 or over enrolled on first-degree courses. Of these students,17,060 were enrolled on other undergraduate courses recorded by the Higher Education Statistics Agency as having participated on Higher Education courses designated for student support at Alternative Providers in the academic year 2015/16. Comparable information for earlier years is not available.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has made an assessment of the effectiveness of steps taken by Oxford and Cambridge Universities to improve access and widen participation from under-represented groups; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
This Government is committed to widening participation to higher education for students from disadvantaged and under-represented groups.
The independent Office for Fair Access led by the Director of Fair Access (DfA) is the regulator currently responsible for widening access to higher education in England. Higher education providers wishing to charge tuition fees above the basic fee level must have an Access Agreement, setting out their targets and planned expenditure to improve access for disadvantaged and under-represented groups, and approved by the DfA. Prior to approval, the Director negotiates with institutions to ensure that Access Agreements are stretching and appropriately demanding. Higher Education Institutions are independent from Government and autonomous - legislation specifically precludes Government from interfering with university admissions.
The proportion of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds going into higher education rose from 13.6% in 2009 to 19.5% in 2016 - an increase of 43%. We have also seen record entry rates for young people across all ethnic groups including at the most prestigious institutions, and record entry rates for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to the most selective universities. There is however, much more to do.
In our guidance to the DfA, published in February 2016, we asked for the most selective institutions, which include the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, to make faster progress on widening access, and to ensure their outreach is more effective. The guidance acknowledged that within this group of institutions there is wide variation, with some demonstrating little progress.
Access agreements for the 2018/19 academic year show that the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge plan to spend over £22 million on measures to further improve access and student success for students from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds.
Following the introduction of the Higher Education and Research Act, from January 2018, the Office for Students (OfS), with a new Director for Fair Access and Participation appointed by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, will take on responsibility for widening participation in higher education. The OfS will have a statutory duty to promote equality of opportunity across the whole lifecycle for disadvantaged students, not just access. As a result, widening access and participation will be at the core of the OfS’ functions. In addition, our reforms will introduce a Transparency Duty requiring higher education providers to publish application, offer, acceptance, drop-out and attainment rates of students broken down by ethnicity, gender and socio-economic background. This will shine a spotlight on those higher education institutions that need to go further and faster to widen participation in higher education.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children under 18-years old were classified as a child in need in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2015-16 and (c) 2014-15 because a parent had no recourse to public funds.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
I am sorry, but the information requested is not available as the Department for Education does not hold data on whether parents of children in need have access to public funds.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate her Department has made of the proportion of the Civil Service workforce in her Department dedicated to planning for (a) the UK leaving the EU and (b) projects relating to the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Department for Education has four members of staff working full time in a central team co-ordinating and contributing to cross-department and cross-government work on EU exit. These staff are supported by a range of civil servants across the department who lead on specific policy areas and whose work includes, but is not limited to EU exit work.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children under 18-years old were classified as a child in need in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2015-16 and (c) 2014-15 because a parent had no recourse to public funds.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
I am sorry, but the information requested is not available as the Department for Education does not hold data on whether parents of children in need have access to public funds.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of the E-Bacc on (a) pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds studying the arts and creative subjects and (b) access to careers in the arts and creative industries for people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In 2016, on average, pupils in state funded schools entered nine GCSEs and equivalent qualifications, rising to ten for some pupils. As the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) covers up to eight GCSEs, this leaves room for other choices including creative and artistic subjects. There has been no evidence that mainstream schools that increased EBacc entry results also decreased their arts entries. The 297 schools that increased their EBacc entry rates by 40 percentage points or more between 2011 and 2016, on average entered 48.6% of their pupils for at least one arts subject. This was almost the same proportion as other state funded schools (48.9%).
There is a small positive correlation (0.12) between schools’ EBacc entries and arts entries, suggesting that schools where EBacc entry has increased tend to have also seen an increase in their arts uptake[1].
It is too early to assess the effect of these changes on employment in the creative industries because pupils who have been taught since the introduction of the EBacc and who may have gone on to higher education will still be undergraduates. The Government is committed to ensuring that talented students have access to the support they need to help them succeed in careers in the arts and creative industries. Our Music and Dance Scheme and Dance and Drama Awards provide income-assessed support to ensure that the most talented children and young people from all backgrounds are able to receive the high quality training they need to succeed in careers in acting, music and dance.
In the Culture White Paper published in March 2016, the Government committed to working with Arts Council England to understand the barriers that prevent people from lower income households and under-represented groups from pursuing a career in the arts. An external report commissioned by the Government looking at the barriers facing disadvantaged people in pursuing a career in the performing arts will be published later this year.
[1] Department for Education, 2017, Trends in arts subjects in schools with increased EBacc entry, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/trends-in-arts-subjects-in-schools-with-increased-ebacc-entry.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) discussions she has had with and (b) representations she has received from the Vice Chancellors of Russell Group universities on improving access for students from disadvantaged and under-represented groups.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government is committed to widening participation to higher education for students from disadvantaged and under-represented groups. Figures from UCAS figures show that the entry rate for disadvantaged young people to the most selective institutions –such as those from the Russell Group - has increased 52% proportionally between 2009 and 2016.
The latest guidance from Government to the Director of Fair Access (February 2016) acknowledges that, whilst selective institutions have made progress in widening access to higher education, more could and should be done. As such we have asked the Director to challenge institutions to see that more progress is made. Through the access agreement process there are regular discussions with each higher education institution about their plans and progress in widening participation.
In its strategic plan the Office for Fair Access has set the sector an objective, to be achieved by 2019-20, to make faster progress to increase the entry rate of students from under-represented and disadvantaged groups entering more selective institutions and narrow the participation gap between people from the most and least advantaged backgrounds at such institutions.
From January 2018, the Office for Students (OfS), with a new Director for Fair Access and Participation appointed by the Secretary of State, will take on responsibility for widening participation in higher education. The OfS will have a statutory duty to promote equality of opportunity across the whole lifecycle for disadvantaged students, not just access. As a result, widening access and participation will be at the core of the OfS’ functions. In addition, our reforms will introduce a Transparency Duty requiring higher education providers to publish application, offer, acceptance, dropout and attainment rates of students broken down by ethnicity, gender and socio-economic background.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department provides to Russell Group universities on improving access for students from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
The Government is committed to widening participation to higher education for students from disadvantaged and under-represented groups. Figures from UCAS figures show that the entry rate for disadvantaged young people to the most selective institutions –such as those from the Russell Group - has increased 52% proportionally between 2009 and 2016.
The latest guidance from Government to the Director of Fair Access (February 2016) acknowledges that, whilst selective institutions have made progress in widening access to higher education, more could and should be done. As such we have asked the Director to challenge institutions to see that more progress is made. Through the access agreement process there are regular discussions with each higher education institution about their plans and progress in widening participation.
In its strategic plan the Office for Fair Access has set the sector an objective, to be achieved by 2019-20, to make faster progress to increase the entry rate of students from under-represented and disadvantaged groups entering more selective institutions and narrow the participation gap between people from the most and least advantaged backgrounds at such institutions.
From January 2018, the Office for Students (OfS), with a new Director for Fair Access and Participation appointed by the Secretary of State, will take on responsibility for widening participation in higher education. The OfS will have a statutory duty to promote equality of opportunity across the whole lifecycle for disadvantaged students, not just access. As a result, widening access and participation will be at the core of the OfS’ functions. In addition, our reforms will introduce a Transparency Duty requiring higher education providers to publish application, offer, acceptance, dropout and attainment rates of students broken down by ethnicity, gender and socio-economic background.