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Research Briefing
Entrants to higher education
The number of students applying to university through UCAS has increased for many years. The main exceptions were when tuition fees were introduced (1998), ‘variable’ fees meant they were increased (2006) and when the cap on fees was lifted to £9,000 in England in 2012. In 2012 the number of applicants fell by around 47,000 (6.6%) and the number of acceptances by around 27,000 (5.5%). There were larger percentage falls among students who will be liable for higher fees; and the largest drop among older applicants (who could avoid higher fees by starting earlier) and students from the EU (who could avoid higher fees by studying elsewhere). Applications up to the end of June 2013 were 3.1% higher than in 2012. Acceptances to mid-September were 9% up.
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Research Briefing
Education: Historical statistics
The organisation of every stage of education has undergone significant change over the last century. These changes have fundamentally altered most aspects of education. Historical indicators are therefore particularly interesting, but also problematic. Very few series are consistent over more than a few decades. The definition/size of different stages of education (primary, secondary, further/higher), school leaving ages and examinations have changed markedly as have state organisation and funding. As key concepts in education change so do the types of statistics collected. The increased role of the state in the first half of the 20th century also widened the scope of official education statistics.
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Research Briefing
Social Care (Local Sufficiency) and Identification of Carers Bill
This Private Members' Bill would impose a duty on local authorities to ensure there were sufficient social care services for carers and disabled people, and require health bodies, schools, and further and higher education insitutions to identify carers.
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Research Briefing
Changes to higher education funding and student support from 2012/13
The Government has raised the cap on tuition fees to £9,000, cut most ongoing direct public funding for tuition and will change various loan repayment terms. The proposed new system will apply to new students in England from 2012/13. The first indication is that net average fees will be around £8,070 in 2012/13. The Higher Education White Paper has set out broad proposals for further reform of the sector.
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Research Briefing
Education Bill: Committee Stage Report
This is an account of the House of Commons Committee Stage of the Education Bill. It complements Research Paper 11/14, prepared for the Commons Second Reading debate, which examines the range of matters covered by the Bill. As originally presented, the Bill sought to make provision relating to the National Assembly for Wales’ framework powers. However, these clauses were removed from the Bill following the ‘yes’ vote in the Welsh Devolution Referendum. A Government amendment to clause 13 (reporting restrictions on alleged offences by teachers) was agreed to without a vote. This inserted new schedule 11B into the Education Act 2002, and was introduced to secure compliance with a European Electronic Commerce Directive. Several minor and technical Government amendments were also made to the Bill. The Opposition tabled many amendments, a considerable number of which were pressed to a division, but none was successful.
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Research Briefing
Education Bill [Bill 137 of 2010-11]
This paper has been written for the House of Commons Second Reading debate on the Education Bill [Bill 137] on 8 February 2011. The Bill seeks to implement the legislative proposals in the Department for Education’s schools White Paper, 'The Importance of Teaching', and measures from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills relating to skills and the reform of higher education funding. It is therefore a very wide-ranging Bill.
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Research Briefing
The Browne Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance
The purpose of this note is to provide an overview of the report of the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance (the Browne Review). The note highlights the report's proposals and includes analysis and responses to the report. This note follows on from two earlier notes on this topic: SN/SP/5695 Reform of higher education funding in England and SN/SP/4917 Review of higher education tuition fees.
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Research Briefing
Reform of higher education funding in England
The purpose of this note is to provide an overview of higher education funding in England and to highlight current debate on the wider issues of the funding and structure of higher education. On the 9th November 2009 the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance was launched under the chairmanship of Lord Browne. The primary task of the review is to make recommendations on the future of fees policy and financial support for full and part-time students, the review is due to publish a report in October 2010. This note flags up some of the issues possibly being considered by the Browne Review.
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Research Briefing
Higher education and social class
The evidence, as far as it goes, suggests that over the latter half of the 20th century there was little change in the proportion of university students from lower social classes. Their participation in higher education increased, but so did participation from all social classes and the gap that was apparent in the middle of the last century was broadly maintained to the end. Even the rapid expansion of higher education in the early 1990s had little impact on this. There now exists a wide range of indicators of disadvantage and looking across these over the past five years or so there is some evidence that this gap has started to close. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds have increased their participation in higher education at a faster absolute rate than those from more advantaged backgrounds. However, the gaps in participation remain very large and the rate of change is slow.
Total results (page 14 of 15)