David Willetts

Commenting on the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) statistics published today, showing a fall in the number of UK students enrolled at universities, Shadow Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary, David Willetts said:

“We have got used to student numbers growing year after year, but that trend is now over. For the first time for many years the number of UK students actually fell last year. In particular, part time students are clearly being put off by the raw deal they get under this Government.

“This is the death knell of Labour’s target of 50 per cent of young adults going on to higher education.”

Notes to editors

The number of UK domiciled students enrolled at university fell from 1,979,000 to 1,964,000 between 2006/07 and 2007/08.

There were 27,000 fewer UK part-time students in 2007/08 compared to the previous year, a fall of 3%.

In 2007/08 there were 14,400 fewer UK students at university than the previous year. During the same period, the number of non-UK students rose by 15,800.

Since 2003/4, the number of non UK domiciled students has risen by 21% and the number of UK domiciled students has risen by just 2%.

                            2003/04                  2007/08                   % increase
UK                     1,919,000                1,965,000                          2%
Non-UK              282,000                  342,000                           21%
Total                 2,200,000               2,306,000                          5%

Source: HESA, SFR130, 29 January 2009.

http://www.hesa.ac.uk/index.php/content/view/1356/161/

ENDS