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Written question asked by Nadine Dorries (Conservative) on Tuesday, 25 October 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 27 October 2005. It was answered by Bill Rammell (Labour) on Monday, 9 January 2006 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Science

Question
(2) how many British students have studied sciences at universities in England in each year since 1997; what percentage were entrants from (a) the state sector and (b) the independent sector; and if she will make a statement.
Answer

The latest available information showing the number of students on science courses is shown in the table. Information for 2004/05 will be available in January 2006. Information on the school background of young (under 21) higher education students is published annually by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in ““Performance Indicators in Higher Education””, but this covers all students and does not show figures for each subject separately. The latest data collected by HESA for 2003/04, covering students of all ages, shows that 11 per cent. of entrants to undergraduate science courses came from the independent sector, compared to 12 per cent. of entrants to all undergraduate courses of any subject. Comparable figures for earlier years are not available centrally at present.

Higher Education students enrolled on undergraduate science courses(9)
of which, from:
HE institutions in England Total students UK Overseas
1997/98 429,815 386,445 43,370
1998/99 444,315 402,245 42,070
1999/2000 452,235 410,955 41,280
2000/01 463,990 422,465 41,525
2001/02 474,360 432,580 41,780
2002/03 524,540 477,880 46,655
2003/04 580,885 533,390 47,495
Note: Figures based on a snapshot count as at December 1st . Numbers are given to the nearest 5 so components may not sum to totals. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)
(9) Science covers the following subjects: Medicine & Dentistry, Subjects allied to medicine, Biological sciences, Veterinary science, Agriculture & related subjects, Physical sciences, Mathematical sciences, Computer Science, Engineering and Technology, Architecture, Building and Planning.
(10) Including students from the EU.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
22931; 441 c431-2W
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Higher education Private education Science Student numbers
Contains statistics
Yes