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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 Thursday, 19 April 2012 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Higher Education: Admissions

Question
(2) how many students entered higher education to study science, technology and engineering subjects at degree level in each of the last 10 years; how many such students have acquired a degree-level qualification; and how many such students studied at each higher education institution.
Answer

[holding answer 13 March 2012]: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) does not hold information on the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses offered by each university. However, the Government set out, in their January Grant Letter published by BIS, that high cost STEM and strategically important and vulnerable subjects (SIVS) remain funding priorities. Under the reformed HE funding arrangements, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will continue to pay a core teaching allocation to high cost subjects, like science, technology and engineering and provide support for SIVS. BIS Ministers also wrote to HEFCE prior to the publication of the January Grant Letter to give an explicit direction that, in freeing up student number controls from 2012/13 onwards, the Council must ensure that provision of, and support for SIVs is not disadvantaged. HEFCE published a circular on 17 October 2011 that detailed how it would allocate student places for 2012/13 and this contained specific protections for SIVS.HEFCE does not generally have targets in respect of the number of or participation in STEM courses, although targets are set in relation to the numbers of students on undergraduate medical and dental courses and particular conditions of grant apply to some allocations to support provision in strategically important and vulnerable subjects, which includes some STEM subjects.The latest available information on first degree undergraduate entrants, enrolments and those qualifying with a degree-level qualification to STEM subjects at UK higher education institutions are shown separately for each of the last nine years in tables which will be placed in the Library. In 2002/03 a new subject classification was introduced to the HESA data called the Joint Academic Coding System (JACS) and therefore subject data for earlier years is not directly comparable. Information in the tables is broken down by institution and a total for UK is also given. Information for the 2011/12 academic year will become available from January 2013.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
99657; 543 c560-1W
Session
2010-12
Related items
Deposited Paper DEP2012-0655
Friday, 20 April 2012
Deposited papers
House of Commons
Subjects
Admissions Higher education
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk