Written question asked by Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Adonis (Labour) on Tuesday, 28 February 2006.

Universities: Science Undergraduates

Question: How many university students of scientific subjects have left university before graduating in each year since 1997 for which figures are available.

Answer: Since 1996-97, information on non-completion rates for higher education students has been published annually by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and, latterly, by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in Performance Indicators in Higher Education. This report includes a table showing the non-continuation rates of young entrants following their year on entry for each subject group, and the latest version (covering entrants in 2002–3) is available from the HESA website at www.hesa.ac.uk/pi/0304/continuation.htm. Figures for previous years are available from the HESA website (for 2001–02) and the HEFCE website www.hefce.ac.uk (for earlier years).

Secondary information