Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many more students have attended university since the cap on student numbers was lifted; and what recent assessment his Department has made of whether there has been an increase in the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds attending university since that cap was lifted.

In 2013, the government announced that the student number controls at publicly funded higher education institutions in England would be removed by 2015/16. This was preceded by a relaxation of student number controls for AAB students, who were made exempt from 2012/13, and ABB students, who were exempt from 2013/14.

Student number controls applied to full-time undergraduate students at English higher education institutions who were domiciled in the UK or European Union prior to study.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes statistics on students enrolled in higher education institutions in England. Time series for UK and EU domiciled full-time undergraduate entrants at higher education institutions in England have been provided in the table.

UK and EU domiciled full-time undergraduate entrants

English Higher Education Institutions

Academic years 2011/12 to 2017/8

Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Record 2011/12 to 2017/18

Note: (1) Figures in this table are rounded to the nearest multiple of five.

(2) Entrants refers to first year students.

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) publish data on the proportion of disadvantaged 18-year-olds from England accepted to full-time higher education. In 2018 there were a record proportion of disadvantaged 18-year-olds from England accepted onto full-time higher education courses.

Entry rates for English disadvantaged 18 year olds

Source: UCAS End of Cycle report 2018

Note: The disadvantage measure refers to POLAR Quintile 1. POLAR is an area-based measure of educational disadvantage.