2000/01 Higher education student data published by HESA

The Higher Education Statistics Agency today releases the publication Students in Higher Education Institutions 2000/01. The volume contains detailed statistical information about the student body of the UK higher education sector.

Figures from this latest HESA publication show 1,990,625 students following HE level programmes at 166 publicly funded UK HE institutions in 2000/01. 60.8% of these were following full-time or sandwich programmes and 77.5% were studying at undergraduate level. A total of 915,825 full-time first degree students made up 46.0% of the recorded HE student population.

There were 448,695 postgraduate level students, 23.9% of whom were enrolled on higher research degrees, 44.6% on higher taught degrees and the remaining 31.5% on other postgraduate programmes.

A total of 504,410 qualifications were awarded at HE level in 2000/01. 54.1% (272,665) of these were at first degree level.56.2% of those who obtained a classified first degree were awarded first or upper second class honours.

Other key points

• Students from countries other than the UK numbered 230,870 and represented 11.6% of the total student body.
• Ethnic minorities constituted 13.7% of all first year UK domiciled students whose ethnicity was known.
• Women made up 55.8% of the student population and 57.7% of UK domiciled undergraduates.
• 60.7% of part-time first degree entrants were aged 30 or over.
• Students on sandwich programmes constitute 8.0% of all undergraduates.
• 9.0% of classified first degrees awarded to women were first class honours, compared to 10.1% for men.
• Part-time students obtained a higher proportion of first class first degree honours (9.9%) than those studying full-time (9.5%).

Notes for editors

1. HESA is now introducing a new "standard registration population" in its datasets. This population differs from the former "December population" in that it counts students that register at any point in the academic year rather than, as before, just those that were registered on 1 December. This new population will be used as standard by HESA in the future and has been used in the production of the Reference Volume: Students in Higher Education Institutions 2000/01. The "December population" was used to produce previous editions of this reference volume and therefore data presented in the 2000/01 Reference Volume: Students in Higher Education Institutions is not comparable with that published in previous years. Should you require more information on these changes please contact the HESA Data Provision team on 01242 211133.
2. The Reference Volume Students in Higher Education Institutions 2000/01 provides a statistical reference about students within Higher Education in the UK for 2000/01.
3. The Reference Volume is available from the Customer Services Team, HESA Services Ltd., 95 Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1HZ; telephone: 01242 255577. An electronic version on disk is also available. A list of other publications can be obtained from the Customer Services Team.
4. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.
5. Press Enquiries should be directed to Press Officer, at HESA, 95 Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1HZ; telephone: 01242 211133.

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