PIs 2007/08: Introduction
This is an annual publication providing Performance Indicators (PIs) relating to higher education (HE). It is based on data submitted to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) by publicly-funded higher education institutions in the United Kingdom (UK) for the 2007/08 academic year.
Purpose of indicators
Following the recommendations of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, the Government asked the funding councils to develop suitable indicators and benchmarks of performance in the higher education sector. The Performance Indicators Steering Group (PISG) was established, with membership drawn from government departments, the funding councils and representative bodies. Since 2002/03, HESA has published the Performance Indicators on behalf of Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) who published them previously. HEFCE will continue to further develop the Performance Indicators under the auspices of PISG.
These indicators are designed to provide reliable information on the nature and performance of the higher education sector in the UK and a consistent set of measures of this performance. This will contribute to a greater public accountability by the sector, as well as ensure that policy decisions can be made on the basis of consistent and reliable information.
Coverage
All the tables are based on students who are residents of England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Most of the indicators are shown separately for young and mature students, where young students are those under 21 on 30 September of their year of entry to the institution. In addition, most of them refer just to students on undergraduate courses. The non-continuation indicators are further restricted to full-time students only.
The indicators are given for the institutions that existed in
2007/08. Since last year's Performance Indicators:
Cumbria Institute of the Arts and the Carlisle campus and Penrith campus of The University of Central Lancashire merged with St Martin's College;
The Royal College of Nursing transferred provision of its HE distance learning programmes to The Open University;
University Campus Suffolk joined the HE sector as an independent institution;
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama merged with University of Glamorgan;
Bell College merged with The University of Paisley.
Differences from HESA statistics
Although the tables in this publication are based on data collected by HESA, the statistics differ from those that have been published elsewhere by HESA in a number of respects. For example, the number of first degree full-time entrants shown in Table T1a of the PIs is 332,505 whereas the HESA reference volume, ‘Students in Higher Education Institutions 2007/08’ reports the number of UK domiciled first degree first year full-time students as 338,720 (Table 4a). The main differences are as follows:
- The ‘UK domiciled’ students reported by HESA include students
domiciled in Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. The tables in the
Performance Indicators exclude students from these areas.
- The HESA reference date for age is 31 August; for the PI tables the reference date is 30 September.
Indicators included
The Performance Indicators cover the following areas:
- Tables T1 and T2 provide widening participation indicators,
that is, what proportion of entrants come from various
under-represented groups such as state schools or colleges, specified
socio-economic classes and low-participation neighbourhoods. The low-participation neighbourhood data produced from 2006/07 onwards uses the POLAR2 method and is not comparable with the low participation data published previously, please see the definitions document for details.
The POLAR2 low participation measure is based on a UK wide classification of areas into participation bands. The relatively high (in UK terms) participation rate in Scotland coupled with the very high proportion of HE that occurs in FE colleges means that the figures for Scottish institutions could, when viewed in isolation, misrepresent their contribution to widening participation. Therefore, low participation data has not been produced for institutions in Scotland.
- Table T7 covers students who are in receipt of Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA).
- Tables T3, T4 and T5 provide indicators of the non-continuation rates of institutions. T3 looks at the proportion of students who do not continue at an institution beyond their first year there. T4 looks at the proportion that resume study after a year out of HE. T5 gives the projected outcomes for students who are at an institution, that is, what proportion are projected to qualify at the institution, transfer to another institution, or leave higher education with no qualification.
- Table T6, which is published only for Welsh institutions, provides module completion rates for part-time students.
- Table R1 provides indicators of research output, looking at quantitative outcomes of research that will change from year to year. These are different from the ratings of quality produced by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) and are designed to complement, rather than replace, them.
- Table E1 provides an indicator of the employment of graduates.
Many of these tables are accompanied by supplementary tables. They are designed to provide background information and contextual statistics to the main tables. They begin with the letter S.
Higher education institutions in the UK are diverse and the range of indicators reflects part of this diversity. Some of the factors that make up this diversity have been taken into account in producing the benchmarks which are included in most of the tables. For more information on what the benchmarks are, please see the Guide to PIs.
How to interpret the indicators
Because of the diversity of UK HEIs, there is no one measure of what is ‘best’. The indicators in this report are designed to be taken together and even so do not cover all facets of the sector.
In making comparisons, care should be taken to ensure that two institutions are alike enough to compare, or at least that the differences are made explicit. There is no point, in the extreme case, in trying to compare a small specialist college of art and design with a large multi-faculty university. However, there are less extreme cases where comparison is still not meaningful. To help decide if two institutions are alike enough to be compared, the benchmarks may be used. In general, if two institutions have substantially different benchmarks they should not be compared.
Small numbers
The indicators apply to various sub-groups of the student population, such as young full-time degree students, or mature part-time students. By splitting the population in this way, there is a danger that the numbers on which a particular indicator is based may be rather small. In such cases, interpretation is particularly difficult. For example, if there were only 50 students in the base population, a change in status of only two of the students would change the indicator by 4%. In all tables, the numbers of students forming the base for the indicators have been given. Where an institution has fewer than 20 students with known data, the indicator has been omitted.
Enquiries
Press: Call 01242 211120 or email pressoffice@hesa.ac.uk.
General enquiries should be sent to piteam@hesa.ac.uk.
Enquiries regarding the Performance Indicators Steering Group (PISG)
should be directed to the HEFCE Press Office on 0117 931 7307
