Written question asked by James Clappison (Conservative) on Monday, 4 July 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 6 July 2011. It was answered by Lord Willetts (Conservative) on Monday, 18 July 2011 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Higher Education: Admissions

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will publish the research used by the Office for Fair Access in the formulation of targets for access for individual higher education institutions set out in paragraph 5.22 of the Higher Education White Paper.

Answer: Our recently published Higher Education White Paper made clear that measures and targets in access agreements are chosen by the institution and agreed with the Office of Fair Access (OFFA).In February, our letter of guidance to the Director of Fair Access set out our expectation that institutions should agree a programme of defined progress each year—set within a five-year timeframe—in relation to appropriate benchmarks. This might include the access and retention benchmarks as calculated by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). In addition we encouraged the use of measures taking account of the individual context of the institution and using an institution's own data. These expectations have been reflected in the Director's own guidance to the sector.

Secondary information