News and insight

Data from the newly released HESA HE Finance Plus 2007/08 publication shows that the total income of UK higher education institutions exceeded £23.4 billion in the 2007/08 academic year. Income for the sector rose 10.3% from the 2006/07 total of £21.3 billion. Total expenditure in the sector saw a similar level of increase, rising 8.9% from £21.0 billion to £22.9 billion.

For the first time, HESA has collected comprehensive data on the number of students studying outside the UK for qualifications awarded by UK HE institutions (HEIs). The new data, published today, shows that 196,640 ‘offshore students' were studying entirely overseas for HE level awards from 112 UK HEIs during the 2007/08 academic year.

‘Distance learning' courses accounted for more than half of the offshore provision of UK higher education (100,360 students). Meanwhile, 7,090 students were studying at overseas campuses directly run by UK HEIs. Most of the remaining 89,190 students were studying for qualifications offered by UK institutions in collaboration with foreign partners. Just under a third of offshore students were studying for postgraduate qualifications.

Alison Allden has been appointed to be the next Chief Executive of the Higher Education Statistics Agency. She will take up the post on 1 August 2009 when the current Chief Executive, Professor Robin Sibson, retires at the end of July.

Alison Allden was appointed Deputy Registrar and Director of Information Services at the University of Bristol in 2004. She is a member of the senior executive of the University and has direct responsibility for Information Services and strategy development across a range of activities and support services.

The first analysis of the HESA Staff Record for 2007/08 shows that 18.7% of professors in higher education institutions are female, up from 17.5% in 2006/07.

The proportion of female academic staff in all grades has increased over the same period, from 42.3% in 2006/07 to 42.6% in 2007/08.

This Statistical First Release (SFR) has been produced by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in collaboration with statisticians from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), the Scottish Government (SG) and the Department for Employment and Learning Northern Ireland (DEL(NI)). It has been released according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority. 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 2007/08.

Field work begins this month on the Higher Education Statistics Agency's second survey to track the careers of graduates three and a half years after they left higher education. Will the recent credit crunch have affected the job prospects of recent graduates, or even boosted the numbers going into further study?

The first Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Longitudinal survey was carried out in November 2006 and contacted a sample of leavers who graduated in 2002/03. The same cohort had previously been surveyed 6 months after graduation.

The newly released Higher Education Statistics for the United Kingdom 2006/07 publication from the Higher Education Statistics Agency provides an official overview of the UK's higher education sector. The publication contains data from HESA, along with information from a wide range of other bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Student Loans Company and UCAS. It has been released according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Key findings from the volume include a widening gender gap in students gaining teaching qualifications from Higher Education Institutions. Between 2005/06 and 2006/07 the number of female students gaining teaching qualifications at UK Higher Education Institutions rose by 2.0% from 23,865 to 24,335, while the number of male qualifiers fell from 8,065 to 7,610, a fall of 5.7%.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency today announced the release of a major update to its web-based information system heidi 2.0. heidi (the higher education database for institutions) makes a wealth of management information available to managers, planners, administrators and academics at HE institutions in the UK.

HESA, the not-for-profit sector-owned agency with responsibility for collecting and disseminating HE statistics, developed heidi in collaboration with the University of Leeds and the British Universities Finance Directors Group (BUFDG). The initial project received financial backing from HEFCE's Leadership, Governance and Management fund to the tune of £322k, the largest grant ever made from the fund. heidi now contains data from sources including HESA, UCAS, the Training and Development Agency for Schools, the National Student Survey and Estates Management Statistics.

Data from the newly released HESA Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Institutions 2006/07 publication shows that unemployment among recent first degree graduates continues to fall.

The publication, produced from the fifth annual Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) Survey, reveals that 5.6% of first degree graduates were "assumed to be unemployed*" six months after gaining their qualification in the 2006/07 academic year. This compares with a figure of 6.1% for those who qualified in 2005/06.

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.