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Dept for Education and Skills

Answer

Mr. Andrew Turner: :To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what information she collects on the social composition of entrants to undergraduate courses in higher education. [60255] Margaret Hodge: [holding answer 10 June 2002]: The most comprehensive information on the social composition of entrants to undergraduate courses in higher education is taken from data collected by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). Although it is accepted that not all entrants or undergraduate courses use the UCAS route. UCAS assigns social class to applicants based upon the occupation of the parent with the highest income in the applicants household, as reported by the potential student. For applicants aged 21 or over, the occupation of the person contributing the highest income to the household is used. The latest UCAS data are shown in the table. Accepted applicants for full-time undergraduate courses, 2001 entry _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Social class Numbers Percentage of known Professional 39,748 14 Intermediate 120,831 44 Skilled non-manual 38,774 14 Skilled manual 48,412 18 Partly skilled 23,114 8 Unskilled 5,604 2 Total known 276,483 100 Unknown 48,989 Grand total 325,472 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Other information on the social composition of higher education entrants is also available from the Youth Cohort Study (YCS), a series of longitudinal surveys of young people that track their activities in the years immediately after they have completed compulsory education. The YCS is a sample survey of young people that employs a socio-economic group (SEG) classification that differs from the social class breakdown used by UCAS. Therefore, the two sources of information are not directly comparable.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

60255; 386 c1411-2W;386 c1415W

Session

2001-02

Subjects

Higher education Students Social class

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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