News and insight

Following the recommendations of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, the Government asked the four UK higher education funding bodies (HEFCE, HEFCW, SFC and DELNI) 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. PISG defines the specification and develops the Performance Indicators. They are calculated and published on their behalf by the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

This Statistical First Release (SFR) has been produced by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), in collaboration with Department for Education and Skills (DfES) statisticians. It provides details of the destinations of leavers from higher education (HE) who obtained qualifications in higher education institutions (HEIs) in the United Kingdom (UK), during the academic year 2005/06. The data presented draws on the 2005/06 Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) record.

HESA’s Resources of Higher Education Institutions 2005/06 shows that academic staff numbers increased by 2.6% in 2005/06, with a total of 164,875 academic staff employed, up from 160,655 in 2004/05. The latest HESA data shows 111,410 staff were employed full-time, accounting for 67.6% of staff in 2005/06. In the previous year, 109,625 academic staff were employed full-time, 68.2% of total staff numbers.

There were 190,540 non-academic staff in 2005/06 compared to 185,650 the year before. This is a rise of 2.6%, reversing a fall of 1.2% in 2004/05. 66.4% (126,510) of non-academic staff were employed full-time compared to 67.2% (124,820) in 2004/05.

Data from the newly released HESA Students in Higher Education Institutions 2005/06 publication shows that the proportion of university students declaring a disability at all levels of study continues to rise.

In total, 137,945 students declared themselves as having a disability in 2005/06, an increase from 128,185 students in 2004/05 and 115,595 in 2003/04. By this definition, the total number of disabled students has risen by just over two thirds, or 67.7pc, from 82,280 since 2000/01. In contrast the total number of UK domiciled students over this period saw a 14.0pc rise from 1,759,755 students to 2,006,035.

Data from the HESA Finance Record reveals that total institutional income in higher education rose 7.5 per cent to £19.5 billion in 2005/06. Total expenditure in the sector saw a similar level of increase at 7.4 per cent, rising from £18.0 billion to £19.3 billion.

Grants from funding councils contributed to the largest proportion of income at £7.5 billion, a rise of 8.2 per cent on the £7.0 billion in 2004/05. Endowment and investment income saw the largest percentage increase, 11.9 per cent, up from £307 million in 2004/05 to £343 million in 2005/06. Income from “other” sources rose by 6.5 per cent to £3.9 billion. This includes grants from local authorities and income from intellectual property rights.

Data from the newly released HESA Students in Higher Education Institutions 2005/06 shows India is now second only to China in the number of overseas students it provides to the UK. The climb in Indian student numbers shows no sign of slowing down after a 15.1% increase in intake, greater than the previous year’s increase of 14.1%. The total number of Indian domiciled students was over 19,000; 5.8% of non-UK domiciled students. India leapfrogged Greece into second place in the table as the UK saw a 10.2% fall in the number of HE students from its EU partner.

However, India is some way off rivalling the number of students from China. Despite a fall of 3.7% in the number of Chinese domiciled students, the world’s most populous country continues to provide over 50,000 students to the UK. This accounts for more than 15% of non-UK domiciled students.

This Statistical First Release (SFR) has been produced by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in collaboration with Department for Education and Skills (DfES) statisticians. It provides details of student enrolments and qualifications obtained by higher education (HE) students at HE institutions (HEIs) in the United Kingdom (UK) for the academic year 2005/06.

This month HESA launches an ambitious project to track the careers of 65,000 graduates three and a half years after they left higher education.

This study, which will be conducted by a partnership of IFF Research Ltd. and YouGov Plc, will be the first time that systematic longitudinal tracking of UK graduates has been attempted on such a large scale. It builds on the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education survey, which is carried out by higher education institutions six months after graduation.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency’s latest publication, “HE Statistics for the United Kingdom 2004/05” is released today. It is prepared in conjunction with the Government Statistical Service and provides an official overview of the UK’s higher education sector using HESA data. It also contains information from a wide-range of other bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Student Loans Company, the Office for National Statistics and UCAS.

This month HESA launches an ambitious project to track the careers of 65,000 graduates three and a half years after they left higher education.

This study, which will be conducted by a partnership of IFF Research Ltd. and YouGov Plc, will be the first time that systematic longitudinal tracking of UK graduates has been attempted on such a large scale.

It builds on the Destinations of Leavers from HE survey, which is carried out by higher education institutions six months after graduation. In lengthening the time period to over three years, the study will provide educationalists and policy makers with evidence of the type of benefits that higher education can bring in the longer term and enable them to plot early graduate career trajectories.