1997/98 HE student data published by HESA

Students in Higher Education Institutions 1997/98 is published today by HESA. The volume contains detailed statistical information about the student body of the UK higher education sector.

Figures from this latest HESA publication show 1,800,064 students following HE programmes at 174 UK HE institutions in the academic year 1997/98. 78.5% of these were studying at undergraduate level, with 899,719 full-time first degree students making up almost 50% of the total student population. There were a further 89,670 part-time students making up a first-degree total of 989,389. 53.1% (955,338) of all students were women, and 11.8% (213,264) were from overseas.

There were 437,128 HE qualifications awarded, 258,753 at first degree level. Of these, 53.6% of those who obtained a classified first degree were awarded first or upper second class honours, with women obtaining fewer firsts than their male colleagues but a greater proportion of upper second class degrees.

Other key points

• 64.8% of the 1,800,064 HE students were following full-time or sandwich programmes of study
• Just over 36% of all full-time postgraduates were domiciled overseas
• Ethnic minorities constituted 13.3% of all first year UK domiciled students whose ethnicity was known
• There were 42,268 students studying at FE level in HE institutions
• 65.1% of new full-time first degree students were following programmes of up to three years' duration, 31.2% for four years
• The proportion of new full-time first degree students aged 18 and under rose to 47.9% (from 45.8% in 1996/97), whilst 57.1% of new part-time first degree entrants were aged 30 or over compared to 63.6% in the previous year
• Sandwich students constituted almost 9% of all undergraduates
• Nearly 11,000 doctorates and just under 19,000 PGCEs were awarded in 1997/98
• Part-time students obtained a higher proportion of first-class first degree honours (9.7%) than full-time (8.0%)
• 22.0% of Mathematical science students were awarded first class degrees, compared to 3.9% among Law qualifiers.

Notes for editors

1. The Reference Volume Students in Higher Education Institutions 1997/98 provides a statistical reference about students within Higher Education in the UK for 1997/98.
2. 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.
3. HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.
4. Press Enquiries should be directed to  Data Provision Officer, at HESA, 95 Promenade, Cheltenham, GL50 1HZ; telephone: 01242 255577. Other enquiries about HESA data should be addressed to the Data Provision Team at the same address.

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