Introduction - Students 2002/03

This publication is one of four reference volumes published annually by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). HESA is a company limited by guarantee, and is owned by the United Kingdom (UK) higher education sector through the representative bodies Universities UK and the Standing Conference of Principals. HESA collects data from publicly-funded higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK on behalf of funding bodies and government departments, in a framework underpinned by legislation.

This volume draws on HESA's collection of data about students in HEIs during the academic year 2002/03, that is, the period 1 August 2002 to 31 July 2003. It covers data supplied by 170 HEIs (133 in England, 13 in Wales, 20 in Scotland, 4 in Northern Ireland). The data collection procedure is uniform across all institutions, regardless of size, nature, and location; the range of data fields collected is administration-dependent to a limited extent. HESA does not collect data from further education colleges (FECs). Data on HE provision in FECs is accordingly not included in this volume except for students funded indirectly through HEIs, in which case it is reported by the HEI through which funding passes.

The other reference volumes published by HESA are as follows.

Resources of Higher Education Institutions. This volume brings together information about the finances and the staff of HEIs. Tabulations are included which record and analyse income and expenditure, and the characteristics of staff, at the institutional level.

Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Institutions. This volume draws on the newly introduced Destination of Leavers (DLHE) survey, the successor to the First Destinations Supplement (FDS), and provides information about patterns of employment and further study or training at a point about six months after completion. DLHE covers leavers from part-time as well as full-time courses, a major extension relative to FDS.

Higher Education Statistics for the United Kingdom. This is the only HESA reference volume that currently falls within the National Statistics framework, and it accordingly carries the National Statistics logo as well as that of HESA. It provides an overview of higher education in the UK from a statistical perspective, including statistics about applications, participation, institutional finance, staffing, student awards, and loans. To achieve this broad coverage, this volume draws on data collected by other bodies as well as HESA, and in particular includes some information about directly funded HE provision in FECs.

HESA also publishes annually two Statistical First Releases within the National Statistics framework; the Higher Education Management Statistics at sector and (on CD) institutional level; detailed data for institutional planning purposes on CD (HE Planning Plus and HE Finance Plus); and occasional Research Datapacks. The HESA Information Provision Service exists to meet more specialist needs of data users on a bespoke basis.

Data protection

Due to the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Human Rights Act 1998, HESA implements a strategy in published and released tabulations designed to prevent the disclosure of personal information about any individual. These tabulations are derived from the HESA non-statutory populations and may differ slightly from those published by related statutory bodies. This strategy involves rounding all numbers to the nearest 5. A summary of this strategy is as follows:

0, 1, 2 are rounded to 0
All other numbers are rounded to the nearest 5

So for example 3 is represented as 5, 22 is represented as 20, 3286 is represented as 3285 while 0, 20, 55, 3510 remain unchanged.

This rounding strategy is also applied to total figures; the consequence of which is that the sum of numbers in each row or column will rarely match the total shown precisely. Note that subject level data calculated by apportionment will also be rounded in accordance with this strategy.

Average values, proportions and FTE values prepared by HESA will not be affected by the above strategy, and will be calculated on precise raw numbers. However, percentages calculated on populations which contain less than 50 individuals will be suppressed and represented as '..' as will averages based on populations of 7 or less.

Format of publications

During the period leading up to the cycle of publications based on 2002/03 data, HESA has consulted widely about the use made of its publications and the changes users would like to see. This has confirmed that extensive use is made of these publications and that there are no tables within them that could be removed without loss. Indeed, users have asked for additional material, both in the form of extra tables and more detailed breakdowns within tables. It would not be practicable to provide some of the detailed breakdowns in a paper publication, and in any event another user request has been to make the material available in a computer-readable form. Accordingly, this year we have greatly reduced the number of printed pages, retaining in the printed format only a limited range of tables, and have included a CD with each copy. The CD contains all the remaining data on the pattern familiar to users from earlier years and supplements this with new and more detailed tables.

The tables on the CD are offered in Microsoft® Excel format (version 5 - XLS extension). This has the further benefit of allowing users to select data from the tables and manipulate how it is displayed. However, arithmetical manipulations should be carried out with caution because of the effect of the rounding strategy described above.

Students in UK higher education institutions, 2002/03

This commentary draws attention to some of the headline figures and key points which emerge from the main tables. The information is displayed graphically where appropriate. Where figures for previous years are quoted for comparison, they are taken from the 2001/02 and 2000/01 editions of this volume.

Summary of key points

2,175,115 students were recorded as following an HE programme leading to a qualification or credit at a publicly-funded UK higher education institution in 2002/03 (2,086,075 in 2001/02; 1,990,625 in 2000/01). This total includes both full-time and part-time students. It includes students at further education colleges who were funded indirectly through an HEI; they have been counted within the numbers for that HEI. It excludes students studying on a directly funded HE programme at a FEC, and excludes students studying at HE level in institutions that are not publicly-funded. In what follows, the terms 'total' or 'entire' HE population do not imply inclusion of these groups.

Of the 2002/03 total, 60.6% (60.2%; 60.8%) were following a full-time or sandwich programme and the balance were following a part-time programme or were writing-up.

Of the 2002/03 total, 77.1% (77.5%; 77.5%) were studying for an undergraduate qualification (either at or below first degree level), and the balance for a qualification at postgraduate level.

A further 121,150 (112,530; 103,485) students were following a course at further education (FE) level within HEIs.

Full-time first degree students made up 45.1% (45.1%; 46.0%) of the HE student population.

11,715 students were reported through HEIs as studying for a foundation degree (3,775 in 2001/02, the first full year of the scheme).¹

The proportion of the entire HE population studying part-time and writing-up was 39.4%, with exceptionally high figures in 'Combined' and 'Education'.

Women made up 56.6% (56.2%; 55.8%) of the entire HE student population and 58.6% (58.0%; 57.7%) of UK domiciled² undergraduates.

Subject areas with a high proportion of women included subjects allied to medicine (83.3%), education (72.8%), veterinary science (70.5%), and languages (68.0%). Subject areas with a high proportion of men included engineering & technology (84.9%), computer science (74.6%), and architecture building & planning (70.2%).

There were 275,270 (242,755; 230,870) students from countries other than the UK, of which 209,840 were full-time and 65,425 were part-time. Such students represented 12.7% (11.6%; 11.6%) of the entire HE student population, and the full-time and sandwich non-UK students represented 15.9% of the full-time HE student population. Students from outside the EU numbered 184,685, which represented 8.5% of the entire HE student population.

Students from outside the UK were well represented in engineering & technology, business & administrative studies, law, mathematical sciences, languages, computer science, and architecture building & planning.

Students from outside the UK made up 46.7% (42.9%; 41.1%) of all full-time postgraduates, with 34.5% coming from outside the EU.

Students on sandwich programmes made up 7.4% (7.8%; 8.0%) of all undergraduates. They formed the highest proportion in agriculture & related subjects, computer science, business & administrative studies, architecture building & planning, and engineering & technology.

22.1% (21.7%; 20.9%) of UK domiciled entrants on full-time first degree courses were aged 21 and over.

Ethnic minorities constituted 14.7% (14.1%; 13.7%) of all first year UK domiciled HE students of known ethnicity.

Of students who obtained a classified first degree, 58.3% (58.2%; 56.2%) were awarded first or upper second class honours, and 11.0% (10.4%; 9.5%) were awarded a first.

94.7% of full-time first degree students domiciled in England studied in their country of domicile; the corresponding figure for Wales was 58.5%, for Scotland 93.1%, and for Northern Ireland 70.0%.

Student population

In 2002/03 there were 2.30 million students studying for a qualification or for credit at 170 publicly-funded higher education institutions in the United Kingdom. Of these, 0.12 million (5.3%) were studying at further education level. Information about numbers of FE students studying in HEIs is included as the penultimate line of Table A (below) and in two of the main tables of this volume, but they are otherwise excluded from the figures presented here, and all percentages from this point onwards are relative to the HE total or subtotals of it.

Of the 2,175,115 HE students recorded, 1,318,065 (60.6%) were following a full-time or sandwich programme and the balance were following a part-time programme or were writing-up.

Of the 497,500 (22.9% of the HE total) postgraduate students, 108,610 (21.8% of postgraduates) were studying for a research degree and 236,050 (47.4%) for a taught higher degree. Of the remaining postgraduate students, 33,870 were studying for a Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE).

Of the 1,677,615 (77.1% of the HE total) undergraduates, 1,092,780 (65.1% of undergraduates) were studying for a first degree. Of the remaining undergraduate students, 11,715 were studying for a foundation degree.

Domicile and Gender

Table B provides a summary of students by domicile and gender.

UK figures include 5,190 (3,220 full-time and 1,970 part-time) students from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

There were 275,270 students (209,840 full-time and 65,425 part-time) from countries other than the UK. Such students represented 12.7% of the entire HE student population, and the full-time non-UK students represented 15.9% of the full-time HE student population. Students from outside the EU numbered 184,685, which represented 8.5% of the entire HE student population. Of these students, 103,350 (more than half) were from Asia.

There were 6,745 students from EU accession countries; these numbers will form part of the EU total once the accession process is complete.

Women made up 56.6% of the entire HE student population, being in the majority among both full-time (54.0%) and part-time (60.5%) students. The pattern was different as between UK students, of whom 58.0% were women, and students from outside the UK, where the proportion of women was 47.0%.

Table C provides a more detailed breakdown of the postgraduate population.

Students from outside the UK made up 28.2% of all postgraduates, and 46.7% of all full-time postgraduates, with 34.5% of full-time postgraduates coming from outside the EU (74.0% of the non-UK total). Non-UK students were prominent on full-time research degree programmes (45.0%) and even more so on full-time taught higher degree programmes (61.0%).

Women made up 52.1% of the entire postgraduate population, and 55.3% of UK domiciled postgraduates. There were considerable variations apparent in a breakdown by both type of programme and domicile, as shown by Chart 2.

A major component of ‘other postgraduate’ numbers arose from PGCE programmes, where women are predominant and the large majority of students are UK domiciled, and this has contributed to the high proportion (61.9%) of women among students on ‘other postgraduate’ programmes. For taught higher degree programmes the gender balance was even with 49.9% women, and for research degree programmes the proportion of women was less than half at 43.1%. Breaking down the research degree programme figures by domicile shows that among students from EU countries including the UK, the proportion of women was 45.0%, whereas it was 37.7% for those from outside the EU.

Table D provides the same breakdown by domicile as Table C, but for undergraduates.

The pattern at undergraduate level was very different from that for postgraduates. Only 8.1% of undergraduates were from outside the UK, of which 3.0% were from other EU countries and 5.1% from non-EU countries. However, undergraduates made up a larger proportion of students from other EU countries, at 54.9%, than for non-EU countries, where the figure was 46.2%.

Of UK domiciled undergraduates, 58.6% were women. The figure for other EU countries was 51.0%, and for non-EU countries it was very slightly lower at 49.6%.

The proportion of women on ‘other undergraduate’ programmes, that is, aiming for qualifications below degree level, was 65.0%; this figure did not vary much between full-time programmes (66.4%) and part-time programmes (64.6%); student numbers on part-time programmes constituted 77.7% of all those on programmes below first degree level. Subject of study is an important factor in explaining the high proportion of women on programmes below first degree level, as illustrated in the following section.

Subject of Study

Table E shows the percentages of students at different levels who were following programmes in each of 19 subject areas, supplemented with the figures for four further areas cutting across or lying within the main areas. A detailed explanation of the main and supplementary subject areas, and the way in which student numbers are apportioned between them, may be found in a separate article in this volume.

Most of the figures in this table speak for themselves, but there are two figures at the ‘other undergraduate’ level that need comment. The high proportion in ‘Subjects allied to medicine’ was because it is still the case that a qualification below first degree level is the norm in many health-related professions, at least as an initial qualification aim. By far the largest component is that attributable to nursing, which attracts a large majority of women students.

The high figure under ‘Combined’, almost entirely in part-time mode, was generated by Open University (OU) undergraduate numbers. At the undergraduate level, the OU has only part-time students, and returns all of these as aiming for institutional credit despite the fact that many will achieve a first degree. It is also the case that they are returned as following a ‘Combined’ programme, on the basis that many are actually doing so, and for others the possibility of assignment to a more specific subject area becomes apparent only on programme completion.

Table F shows that the proportion of part-time students varied greatly by subject area. At 95.4% almost all students in the ‘Combined’ subject area were part-time; again, this is attributable to the way OU students are reported. The other area with a very high proportion was ‘Education’, at 61.8%.

Similarly, the proportion of women students was heavily subject-dependent, with wide divergence from the overall figure of 56.6%. Subject areas with a high proportion of women included subjects allied to medicine (83.3%), education (72.8%), veterinary science (70.5%), and languages (68.0%). Subject areas with a low proportion of women included architecture building & planning (29.8%), computer science (25.4%), and engineering & technology (15.1%).

Students from outside the UK were well represented in engineering & technology, business & administrative studies, law, mathematical sciences, languages, computer science, and architecture building & planning.

Expected length of study

Table G shows the expected length of the programme of study reported for full-time students who commenced studying in 2002/03 on programmes leading to first degrees.

Overall 68.4% of these students were on programmes of up to three years’ duration. There were considerable variations between subjects, with programmes longer than four years being associated mainly with professional training in subject areas such as medicine & dentistry, veterinary science, engineering & technology, and architecture building & planning. Four year programmes are common across a wide range of subjects, and 26.3% of students were on such programmes; some but by no means all of these were sandwich programmes, and these are discussed in more detail in the next section. Long programmes may have been slightly under-reported in Table G because of the possibility that, say, what is really a five year programme of study could have been reported as a three year basic programme followed by a two year professional programme.

Sandwich students

In most breakdowns by mode of study, sandwich students are included with full-time students. Students on sandwich programmes comprised 7.4% of all undergraduates. Table H shows by subject area the numbers broken down by first degree and other undergraduate levels, and the overall proportion within the area.

Table H - Undergraduate sandwich students by subject area(#8) 2002/03
		First degree	Other UG	Sandwich students as a percentage of all undergraduates
Medicine & dentistry		0	0	0.0%
Subjects allied to medicine		6055	1345	3.2%
Biological sciences		6185	20	6.2%
Veterinary science		150	0	4.6%
Agriculture & related subjects		2160	690	25.3%
Physical sciences		3785	15	7.2%
Mathematical sciences		1475	55	7.4%
Computer science		25460	515	23.7%
Engineering & technology		15230	550	16.6%
Architecture, building & planning		6665	185	20.7%
Social studies		2520	140	2.0%
Law		965	0	1.8%
Business & administrative studies		38410	1575	21.0%
Mass communications & documentation		1160	0	3.5%
Languages		3330	5	2.9%
Historical & philosophical studies		60	0	0.1%
Creative arts & design		5210	0	4.4%
Education		240	95	0.4%
Combined		295	0	0.1%
Total - All subject areas		119355	5185	7.4%
Supplementary subject information(1)
Psychology		1700	0	4.3%
Geography & environmental sciences		1175	0	4.1%
Economics & politics		1590	0	4.0%
English		65	0	0.1%
In this table 0, 1, 2 are rounded to 0. All other numbers are rounded up or down to the nearest 5. Percentages are not subject to rounding.
(1) Numbers reported under 'Supplementary subject information' are within and not additional to the overall total, but are disaggregated from it on a different pattern from the 19 subject areas.
# see relevant footnote in Notes to Tables.

There was some sandwich programme provision in most subject areas, although in a few cases there were no more than a handful of students. Sandwich students formed the highest proportion of all undergraduate students in agriculture & related subjects, computer science, business & administrative studies, architecture building & planning, and engineering & technology.

Age of students

Table Ii shows the proportion of first year UK domiciled undergraduates in each age group.

22.1% of UK domiciled entrants on full-time first degree courses, and 54.5% on full-time other undergraduate courses, were aged 21 and over. 61.8% of part-time first degree entrants were aged 30 or over.

Table Iii provides equivalent information for postgraduates.

Table Iii - Age distribution of first year United Kingdom domiciled postgraduates(#15) by mode of study 2002/03
Percentages
	Total	Full-time	Part-time
20 & under	0.3	0.5	0.2
21 - 24	30.5	56.0	11.0
25 - 29	19.1	19.2	19.1
30 & over	50.1	24.3	69.8
Total	100.0	100.0	100.0
Percentages are not subject to rounding.

Ethnicity

Ethnicity is recorded using the categories available for the 2001 Census. Details can be found in the definitions section. These categories are then amalgamated following Office of National Statistics guidelines into the smaller number of categories shown in Chart 3 and in main tables. The scheme is designed to describe patterns of ethnicity within the UK domiciled population, and information on ethnicity is required by HESA only for students of UK domicile.

Ethnicity is known for 90.0% of UK domiciled first year undergraduates and 87.4% of UK domiciled first year postgraduates. Taking first year and continuing students together, it is known for 92.1% of undergraduates and 85.1% of postgraduates. Participation in HE by students from ethnic minorities continues to increase overall, and accordingly the most up to date picture is obtained from consideration of the position for new entrants. 14.7% of first year students of known ethnicity are from ethnic minorities, and for full-time first degree students the figure is 17.6%.

Table J - Ethnic minority students as a percentage of United Kingdom domiciled first year students of known ethnicity 2003/03
Percentages
Higher degrees (research)		12.1
Full-time		12.3
Part-time		11.8
Higher degrees (taught)		17.3
Full-time		21.4
Part-time		14.0
Other postgraduate		10.1
Full-time		10.2
Part-time		10.0
First degree		17.2
Full-time		17.6
Part-time		13.5
Other undergraduate		12.6
Full-time		19.4
Part-time		11.0
Percentages are not subject to rounding.

There are substantial differences in gender participation across ethnic categories, and this is also dependent on mode of study. Chart 3 displays these effects jointly.

Qualifications Obtained

In 2002/03 a total of 557,790 qualifications were awarded at HE level to students in publicly-funded HEIs or on indirectly funded HE programmes in FECs. Of these 29.5% were at postgraduate level, 50.6% were undergraduate first degrees, and 19.9% were other undergraduate qualifications. Table K provides a more detailed breakdown.

Table L provides a breakdown of the class of award for first degrees.

Of students who obtained a classified first degree, 11.0% were awarded first class honours and 58.3% were awarded either first or upper second class honours. Chart 4 shows the female/male, full-time/part-time, and UK/non-UK percentages drawn from Table L. The proportion of first class degrees did not depend heavily on any of these factors, but the proportion of upper seconds was substantially greater for female students than for male students, and similarly for UK students and for full-time students. Varying proportions of upper seconds were mainly balanced by proportions of thirds; the proportion of lower seconds did not vary greatly.

Table M shows that there is considerable variation by subject area in the proportions of different classes of degrees that are awarded. This table excludes the clinical subject areas medicine & dentistry and veterinary science, in which the proportion of degrees awarded without classification is substantial.

Table M - First degree graduates in non-clinical subjects(#8) awarded first or upper second class honours as a percentage of classified degrees 2002/03
				Percentages
		First class	Upper second	First or upper second
Subjects allied to medicine		12.3	48.8	61.2
Biological sciences		10.3	48.7	59.0
Agriculture & related subjects		8.6	45.9	54.5
Physical sciences		17.3	42.3	59.6
Mathematical sciences		26.2	34.4	60.6
Computer science		12.6	37.6	50.2
Engineering & technology		17.0	39.3	56.2
Architecture, building & planning		9.5	45.6	55.0
Social studies		8.0	51.2	59.2
Law		4.9	51.7	56.7
Business & administrative studies		6.8	43.3	50.1
Mass communications & documentation		6.9	53.4	60.2
Languages		11.9	58.4	70.3
Historical & philosophical studies		11.2	60.4	71.6
Creative arts & design		10.8	48.2	59.0
Education		7.6	46.1	53.7
Combined		14.8	41.0	55.8
Total - Non-clinical subjects		10.9	47.3	58.2
Supplementary subject information(1)
Psychology		8.9	56.9	65.8
Geography & environmental sciences		8.1	52.0	60.1
Economics & politics		10.1	51.9	62.0
English		11.3	59.0	70.3
Percentages are not subject to rounding. (1) Numbers reported under 'Supplementary subject information' are within and not additional to the overall total, but are disaggregated from it on a different pattern from the 19 subject areas. # see relevant footnote in Notes to Tables.

The female/male, full-time/part-time, and UK/non-UK proportions vary greatly across subject areas (see Table F), and because of this it is not meaningful to interpret small differences from population proportions of degree classes (for example, in the proportion of first class degrees) without adjusting for subject choice. That has not been attempted here, but the methodology used for benchmarking Performance Indicators could be applied.

Flows between administrations

The main tables provide figures showing student mobility within the UK for all UK domiciled students. However, the figures for postgraduate students should be interpreted with caution because the domicile will often reflect the location of undergraduate study rather than the original ‘domestic’ domicile. Part-time students display little mobility. It is accordingly of interest to focus on full-time undergraduates, and these figures are presented in Table N.

676,975 out of 714,975 (94.7%) full-time first degree students domiciled in England studied in their country of domicile; the corresponding figures for Wales were 24,925 out of 42,610 (58.5%), for Scotland 79,500 out of 85,425 (93.1%), and for Northern Ireland 24,525 out of 35,050 (70.0%).

So English and Scottish students displayed little mobility in proportionate terms, but English numbers were large enough in absolute terms to mean that outwards mobility from England contributed almost half of Welsh numbers, and a substantial proportion of those in Scotland. Outwards mobility from Wales and Scotland was almost entirely to England, and outwards mobility from Northern Ireland divided fairly evenly between England and Scotland.

Within England, again for full-time first degree students, the flows into (47,220) and out of (49,045) London were close to balance in absolute terms, which means that there was proportionately much more mobility out of London to the rest of England (37.6%) than in the reverse direction (8.1%). The table in the main body of the volume provides a full breakdown of mobility between English regions.

There was much less mobility between administrations at the level of full-time other undergraduate programmes than at the first degree level: the corresponding percentages for study in the country of domicile are 98.3% for England, 84.9% for Wales, 97.4% for Scotland, and 85.4% for Northern Ireland.

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¹ These figures do not include students on directly funded foundation degree programmes at FECs, so are not a measure of the total uptake of Foundation Degree programmes.

² Except where Channel Islands and Isle of Man students have been separated out explicitly, they have been included in UK figures.