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Dept for Education and Skills

Answer

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of students from (a) professional, (b) manual trades and (c) unskilled backgrounds in (i) Shrewsbury and Atcham, (ii) Shropshire and (iii) England took up places at university in 2002. [119389] Mr. Stephen Twigg: The Department only holds participation rates broken down by social class at national level. The available information relates to the Age Participation Index (API) by social class. The API calculates the proportion of UK domiciled students who enter full-time HE by the age of 20 and is expressed as a percentage of the averaged 18-19 year old population. The most recent information, for 2001/02 is in the table. Age Participation Index (API) by social class, 2001/02 Percentage _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Social class 2001 I Professional 79 II Intermediate 50 IIIn Skilled non-manual 33 IIIm Skilled manual 21 IV Partly skilled 18 V Unskilled 15 I-IIIn 50 IIIm-V 19 Total 35 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. The Government are committed to raising the participation rates for people from less affluent backgrounds, and have introduced the AimHigher campaign, which is targeted at raising attainment and aspirations among young people who traditionally would not consider going to university.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

119389; 409 c735-6W;409 c735-7W

Session

2002-03

Subjects

Admissions Higher education Student numbers Shropshire Social class Shrewsbury Atcham

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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