Written question asked by James Clappison (Conservative) on Thursday, 8 March 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 13 March 2012. It was answered by Lord Willetts (Conservative) on Tuesday, 13 March 2012 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 how many places have been reallocated between higher educational institutions as a result of tuition fee differentials; which institutions have (a) gained and (b) lost places as a result of such reallocation; and if he will publish the most recent figures for student retention for all of the institutions concerned.

Answer: In order to increase student choice and support a more diverse higher education sector the Government introduced a flexible margin of 20,000 higher education places in 2012/13. This involved the removal of places from all institutions so that they could be redistributed based on price and quality criteria. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) announced the results of this exercise on 7 March 2012. The allocations to institutions are available on the HEFCE website:"http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2012/margin.htm"HEFCE will publish figures for the overall effect of student number controls on all institutions when it announces provisional grant allocations on 29 March 2012.The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) publishes information on non-continuation rates of undergraduate students, including non-continuation following year of entry (retention rates), through the HESA Performance Indicators release. The latest available figures show that 89.4% of full-time students starting first degree courses at English higher education institutions in 2008/09 continued at the same institution the following year. Figures for the 2009/10 academic year will become available from 29 March 2012.Further information on HESA performance indicators can be found at:"http://www.hesa.ac.uk/content/view/2072/141/"

Secondary information