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Dept for Education and Employment

Answer

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proportion of university courses have changed from three years to four years in each of the past five years. [136262] Mr. Wicks: The information is not held centrally. The available data on course lengths are shown in the following table. Percentage distribution of undergraduates in UK HE institutions by length of course{ 1} _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Less than More than 1 More than 2 More than 3 More than 4 More than 5 Total Total or equal to year and years and years and years and years (thousand) 1 year less than less than less than less than or equal to or equal to or equal to or equal to 2 years 3 years 4 years 5 years Full-time 1994-95 3.5 6.7 54.1 31.9 3.4 0.3 100.0 927.3 1995-96 3.1 6.4 55.2 31.6 3.5 0.3 100.0 947.4 1996-97 2.9 5.7 56.2 31.5 3.4 0.3 100.0 973.1 1997-98 2.9 5.1 56.8 31.1 3.8 0.3 100.0 1,004.9 1998-99 2.9 4.8 57.6 30.5 3.9 0.4 100.0 1,007.6 Part-time{ 2} 1994-95 20.7 29.0 13.0 10.9 15.4 10.9 100.0 161.1 1995-96 23.7 23.9 13.5 12.0 16.1 10.8 100.0 186.4 1996-97 27.7 23.7 13.1 10.2 15.0 10.3 100.0 201.8 1997-98 26.1 21.4 13.4 10.5 16.8 11.7 100.0 206.6 1998-99 26.5 20.3 10.9 11.1 18.2 12.9 100.0 210.1 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. {1} Excluding students with unknown course length {2} Short, continuing education courses became part of mainstream provision from 1995-96, hence the increasing proportion of courses of less than one year

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

356 c436W; 136262

Session

1999-00

Subjects

Degrees Higher education Universities Student numbers

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk