Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of planned reforms to university admissions on the (a) number and (b) demographic of students applying to university.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Higher education (HE) providers are autonomous organisations responsible for their own admissions decisions. The government takes a close interest in ensuring that the HE admissions system is fair and works well for students.
UCAS have reformed the academic reference for 2024 HE admissions to provide clarity and improve fairness for applicants. UCAS have also consulted on reform of the applicant personal statement to simplify the process and ensure that universities hear from applicants in their own words.
The department will continue to work with UCAS and sector bodies to improve transparency of the university admissions process, enhance student choice, and to improve fairness for applicants of all backgrounds.
Asked by: Wes Streeting (Labour - Ilford North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many training places for nursing students there were in England in the 2023-24 financial year; and how many places there will be in the (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Since 2017, universities have set the number of available nursing training places based on market demand. The Department does not set figures for the number of places. Data published by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service shows that the number of accepted applicants to undergraduate nursing courses in England for 2023 was 20,790.
The NHS Long term Workforce Plan published in June 2023 outlines the nursing training intakes which underpin the plans ambitions across academic rather than financial years, and NHS England will work with the university sector to help achieve this. Across all nursing training intakes, including undergraduate, postgraduate and apprenticeships, these are 32,124 in 2025 academic year, and 33,981 in 2026 academic year.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the underlying cause of the fall in each of the past three years in applications to university nursing courses, as reported by the Financial Times on 15 February, and what action they are taking to reverse the trend.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The drop in nursing applicants follows unprecedented demand for healthcare courses during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the number of applicants continues to outstrip the places on offer. Nursing training places are competitive, and lead to an attractive and important career in the National Health Service.
We are working closely with NHS England, universities and the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service to ensure everyone who wants to pursue a rewarding healthcare career in nursing has the support and opportunities to do so.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to require universities to admit foreign students on the same terms as UK students.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Higher education opportunities should be available to all who have the ability and attainment to pursue them and who wish to do so. The government takes a close interest in ensuring that the higher education admissions system is fair, which includes working closely with higher education providers (HEP) and sector bodies to make sure the system works well for students.
HEPs are autonomous institutions, as per the Higher Education and Research Act of 2017. This means they control their own admissions criteria and the government does not intervene in the requirements providers set for students to access a course.
While HEPs are used to assessing a wide range of qualifications from domestic and international applicants to make admissions decisions, it is essential that that recruitment and admissions practices command public confidence and deliver the best outcomes for students.
The department has launched an investigation into university admissions practices, and will take action to ensure fairness between domestic and international students.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of trends in the uptake of STEM subjects studied at universities.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes data on student enrolments across all UK higher education (HE) providers. This includes data on full person equivalents (FPE) enrolled in different subject areas, categorised using the HE coding of subjects (HECoS) system. Counts of enrolments across all science subjects from 2019/20 to 2021/22 are published in Table 52 of HESA’s Student Data at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-52.
HESA developed the HECoS system to replace the Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) from the 2019/20 academic year onwards. Counts of enrolments across all science subjects from 2014/15 to 2018/19 are still available and published in Table 22 of HESA’s Student Data at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-22.
Due to the change in subject classification system, figures for 2018/19 and earlier are not directly comparable with more recent years. Caution is therefore advised when interpreting data over a longer time series. For more information on JACS and HECoS see: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/hecos.
More recent data on acceptances by subject to full-time undergraduate courses for the 2023 admissions cycle is available from UCAS here: https://www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/undergraduate-statistics-and-reports/ucas-undergraduate-end-cycle-data-resources-2023.
Asked by: Karin Smyth (Labour - Bristol South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many pharmacist training places have been available in each of the last five years; and how many pharmacists have taken up these training places.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The number of training places for pharmacists in England is uncapped and determined each year by health education providers. The following table shows the number of trainees accepted and started on Masters of Pharmacy courses:
| Students accepted (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) | Starters in first year (Higher Education Statistics Agency) |
2022/23 | 3,590 | n/a |
2021/22 | 3,495 | 3,545 |
2020/21 | 3,085 | 3,105 |
2019/20 | 2,945 | 2,830 |
2018/19 | 2,875 | 3,105 |
Asked by: Ben Wallace (Conservative - Wyre and Preston North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of enabling the use of UCAS to (a) search and (b) apply for level (i) 6 and (ii) 7 apprenticeships on take-up of those courses; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Robert Halfon
UCAS have recently expanded their service so students can easily see the different options open to them, including apprenticeships. Having apprenticeships showcased in this way boosts the profile of apprenticeships to school leavers and is a huge step forward in putting apprenticeships on an equal footing with traditional university degrees. Over 200 degree-level apprenticeship vacancies are currently being advertised on the UCAS website for people to consider.
This month the Department, in partnership with UCAS, will launch a pilot that aims to test different ways to connect even more students to apprenticeship opportunities. The pilot will run in 3 regions throughout the 2023/24 academic year – Lancashire, the North East and Greater London – engaging employers and providing students with access to additional support designed specifically for those interested in exploring and applying for apprenticeships alongside their other options (including undergraduate courses). The pilot will be followed by an evaluation in October 2024, including an assessment of the impact of having apprenticeship vacancies listed on the UCAS student hub. In 2024, students will be able to apply for apprenticeships through UCAS alongside an undergraduate degree application. The assessment of the impact of this will then follow at a later date.
We have seen year-on-year growth of degree-level apprenticeships with over 195,550 starts since their introduction in the 2014/15 academic year. To ensure that the supply of degree apprenticeship opportunities available meets demand, we are allocating an additional £40 million over the next two years, supporting degree apprenticeship providers to expand, on top of the £8 million investment in 2022/23.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent discussions she has had with the higher education sector on the availability of university places for domestic students.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The UK higher education (HE) system is amongst the best in the world. Attracting the brightest students internationally is good for our universities and delivers growth at home.
Domestic students continue to make up the vast majority of overall undergraduate students within UK universities. The proportion of international acceptances on results day this year was 12.3%, having been 14.7% at the same point in 2019.
This year on A level and T level Results Day, 186,710 English-domiciled 18-year-olds were accepted to HE providers in England compared to 162,680 in 2019.
Ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to access a world class education remains a top priority and is fundamental to the department’s ambition to level-up skills, growth, and economic opportunity across the country.
As autonomous bodies independent from the government, universities are responsible for their own recruitment decisions. Most universities have separate home and international student recruitment targets, set before the admissions cycle even begins. Universities plan their student numbers very carefully, not least because there are important implications for the provision of student support and wellbeing services, accommodation, and everything else needed to deliver the best student experience.
The department and I regularly engage with the HE sector to support policy making and delivery and did so throughout the 2023 cycle.
Most recently, on 7 September 2023, I attended the Universities UK annual conference and discussed how the government is supporting universities to maximise their immense economic and social impact. Key topics discussed included degree apprenticeships, the Lifelong Loan Entitlement and Horizon.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department has made an assessment of the reasons for the difference in the number of men and women entering university.
Answered by Robert Halfon
A person’s access to university should not be determined by their personal characteristics, but by their ambition and ability. We want to provide a ladder of opportunity for everyone to get the education and skills they need for job security and prosperity and to support levelling up across the country, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or socio-economic background.
There are challenges related to gender representation in higher education (HE). Data shows that more than half (50.6%) of female pupils from state-funded schools in England entered HE by age 19 by 2020/21, compared to 38.4% of males. The gap in progression rates between males and females rose from 11.4 to 12.2 percentage points between 2019/20 and 2020/21.
We know that prior attainment is a key determinant of successful participation in HE, and that is why we have asked universities to take on a more direct role in driving up the standards in schools.
Our access and participation reforms announced in 2021 are playing a pivotal role in ensuring that students are supported to access and succeed on the right course for them. As part of this refresh of the system, the Office for Students (OfS) has asked more institutions to set targets for increasing the proportion of level 4 and 5 qualifications, and higher and degree apprenticeships that they offer, so that more students can access flexible and skills-related courses.
In March 2023, the OfS launched its Equality of Opportunity Risk Register (EORR). This will empower HE providers to deliver interventions for groups of students least likely to experience equal opportunity in HE settings by highlighting 12 key sector risks and the groups most likely to experience these, including gender. We welcome the EORR as a key marker for social justice which will help ensure that no student groups are left behind.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to encourage more people to take up higher apprenticeships.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Higher and degree level apprenticeships provide people with high quality training and are important in supporting productivity, social mobility and widening participation in higher education and employment.
In the 2021/22 academic year, there were over 106,000 apprenticeship starts at levels 4-7. That is 7.6% higher than the previous year. Starts at levels 6 and 7 increased 10.3% in 2021/22 to over 43,000 when compared to the previous year.
Employers have developed over 310 high quality apprenticeship standards at levels 4,5,6 and 7 in industries such as engineering and manufacturing, health and science, digital and transport and logistics to help meet their industry skills needs.
The department wants to accelerate the growth of higher and degree apprenticeships across all regions and encourage higher education providers to expand their existing offers or develop new ones. The department is therefore providing an additional £40 million in funding over the next two years, on top of the £8 million investment in the 2022/23 financial year.
The department continues to promote higher and degree level apprenticeships to employers in all sectors and regions, and it is for individual employers to choose which apprenticeships they offer, and at what level, according to their needs.
The department publishes the higher and degree apprenticeship vacancy listing twice a year, with the next released planned for November, which will highlight over 350 vacancies across the country that are available for young people to apply for in 2023 and 2024. The vacancy listing is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-and-degree-apprenticeships.
The department is working hard to ensure that young people across the country get the right information to help them decide on the best route for their future. From autumn 2023, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service will expand their service so that young people can see more personalised options, including degree apprenticeships. From 2024, students will then be able to apply for apprenticeships alongside degrees, meaning young people can find the right option for them, all in one place