Summary - UK Performance Indicators 2009/10

This section summarises the sector-wide information for each of the indicators, and provides a comparison with the sector values from previous years, where appropriate.

Percentage from schools and colleges in the state sector

This indicator, shown in table series T1, is produced for young full-time undergraduate entrants. The term ‘State schools or colleges’ is for all schools and colleges that are not classed as independent, this includes further education colleges and publicly funded higher education institutions.

Table A [xls 25 KB] provides a time series of the percentage of young full-time first degree entrants who attended a state school or college by country of HEI attended. These figures do not take into account any changes in population, or in the pattern of school attendance, over this time.

Nationally, over 90% of 17 year-olds in full-time education attend schools or colleges in the state sector (Source: Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS)). 88.8% of young entrants to full-time first degree courses in 2009/10 had attended such schools (source: table T1a). Chart 1 illustrates the spread of values for this indicator across the sector.

Sourced from Table T1a of the Performance Indicators.

Percentage from NS-SEC Classes 4, 5, 6 and 7

For the 2001 census, a new classification, National Statistics - Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC), was developed to replace Social Class. It took into account new work patterns in the UK and the changes in education levels required for and the status of, large numbers of occupations. This new classification was used for the social class from 2002/03 onwards and is not comparable with data published prior to 2002/03.

This indicator is produced for young full-time undergraduate entrants to higher education. This indicator uses categories 4 to 7 of the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC) in the 'low SEC' group, with categories 1 to 3 as 'not low SEC'.

Figures based on the Labour Force Survey and quoted in Regional Trends 39 (Source: Office for National Statistics) show that 47% of the population of working age with known classification (excluding NS-SEC class 8, long-term unemployed or never worked) are classified in groups 4 to 7, where classification is based on current or most recent occupation. Nationally, 30.0% of young entrants to full-time first degree courses come from this section of the population (source: table T1a).

Table B [xls 23 KB] provides a time series from 2002/03 of the percentage of young full-time first degree entrants from NS-SEC classes 4-7 by country of HEI attended. Chart 2 illustrates the spread of values for this indicator across the sector.

UCAS changed the question that informs NS-SEC for the majority of applicants for the 2008/09 academic year(#4). The 2008/09 data is not comparable with NS-SEC data published prior to an post 2008/09 and has therefore been excluded from the time series data given in table B.

Sourced from Table T1a of the Performance Indicators. # see relevant footnote in Notes to tables.

Percentage from low participation neighbourhoods (based on the new POLAR2 method)

The percentage of entrants from low participation neighbourhoods is provided separately for young and mature undergraduate entrants, both full-time and part-time. The method for defining low participation neighbourhoods changed in 2006/07 and indicators are now based on the new POLAR2 method. This new method is not comparable with the low participation data produced previously and hence no comparison has been made between the two methods in this summary.

The POLAR2 low participation measure used in Tables T1, T2 and T3 is based on a UK wide classification of areas into participation bands. The relatively high (in UK terms) participation rate in Scotland coupled with the very high proportion of HE that occurs in FE colleges means that the figures for Scottish institutions could, when viewed in isolation, misrepresent their contribution to widening participation. Therefore, low participation data has not been produced for institutions in Scotland.

More information on the POLAR2 low participation can be found in the widening participation definitions.

The indicators given in Table T1a-T1c are for young full-time entrants, Table T2a and T2c for mature full-time entrants and Table T2b for part-time entrants.

Full-time entrants

10.3% of young entrants to full-time first degree courses and 11.9% of mature entrants to full-time first degree courses (who also had no previous higher education qualification) came from low participation neighbourhoods (sourced from tables T1a and T2a respectively). Table C [xls 23 KB] and Table D [xls 22 KB] provide time series of the percentages of young entrants to full-time first degree courses for young and mature students respectively. Table C includes additional data for 2005/06 which has been produced using the POLAR2 method in a comparable way to 2006/07. Charts 3 and 4 illustrate the spread of values for this indicator across the sector.

Sourced from Table T1a of the Performance Indicators. # see relevant footnote in Notes to tables.

Sourced from Table T2a of the Performance Indicators. # see relevant footnote in Notes to tables.

Part-time entrants

There is a difference between young and mature part-time entrants as regards this indicator. 13.5% of young entrants and 6.7% of mature entrants to part-time undergraduate courses come from low participation neighbourhoods (sourced from table T2b).

Table E [xls 22 KB] and Table F [xls 22 KB] provide time series of the percentages of young and mature entrants to part-time undergraduates respectively. Charts 5 and 6 illustrate the spread of values for this indicator across the sector.

Sourced from Table T2b of the Performance Indicators. # see relevant footnote in Notes to tables.

Sourced from Table T2b of the Performance Indicators. # see relevant footnote in Notes to tables.

Percentage of disabled students

The indicator, in Table T7, is provided separately for full-time and part-time undergraduates. Unlike the other widening participation indicators, it is based on all undergraduates, not just entrants, because of the small numbers involved. The indicator used is the proportion of students who are in receipt of disabled students' allowance (DSA), as this is more robust than the proportions reporting that they are disabled.

The proportion of students in receipt of DSA is relatively small. The percentage of such students on full-time undergraduate courses in 2009/10 was 4.9%, with institutional values ranging from 0.3% to 26.0%.

For part-time undergraduate students, 2.9% were in receipt of DSA.

Table G [xls 23 KB] and Table H [xls 23 KB] provide a time series of the percentages of full-time first degree and part-time undergraduates, respectively, who were in receipt of DSA. Chart 7 illustrate the spread of values for this indicator across the sector for full-time first degree students.

Sourced from Table T7 of the Performance Indicators.

Non-continuation rates after first year at institution

Table series T3 gives this indicator, which shows what proportion of entrants do not continue in higher education beyond the first year. Table T3a provides this indicator separately for young and mature full-time first degree entrants to higher education.

In general, a higher proportion of mature entrants than young entrants do not continue in higher education after their first year. For full-time first degree entrants in 2008/09, the UK non-continuation rate is 12.9% for mature entrants compared with 6.5% for young entrants (sourced from table T3a). The non-continuation rate for young entrants is 10% or less at over 80% of institutions. For mature entrants it is between 2% and 20% at the majority of institutions.

Table I [xls 23 KB] and Table J [xls 22 KB] provide a time series of the non-continuation rates by country of HEI for young and mature full-time first degree entrants respectively. Charts 8 and 9 illustrate the spread of values between institutions, again for young and mature full-time first degree entrants respectively.

Sourced from Table T3a of the Performance Indicators.

Sourced from Table T3a of the Performance Indicators.

Table T3d shows the proportion of full-time other undergraduate entrants to an institution that do not continue in higher education beyond the first year. These proportions are provided separately for young and mature full-time other undergraduate entrants to higher education.

In general, a lower proportion of mature than young full-time other undergraduate entrants do not continue in higher education after their first year. For entrants in 2008/09, the UK non-continuation rate was 14.7% for mature entrants compared with 17.6% for young entrants (sourced from table T3d).

Table K [xls 23 KB] and Table L [xls 22 KB] provide a time series of non-continuation rates by country of HEI for young and mature full-time other undergraduate entrants respectively. Charts 10 and 11 illustrate the spread of values between institutions, again for young and mature full-time other undergraduate entrants respectively.

Sourced from Table T3d of the Performance Indicators.

Sourced from Table T3d of the Performance Indicators.

Table T3e shows the proportion of part-time first degree entrants to an institution that do not continue in higher education beyond their second year. These proportions are provided separately for entrants to higher education who were aged 30 and under and those aged over 30.

Table M [xls 22 KB] provides a time series of non-continuation rates by country of HEI for part-time first degree entrants with a split between those aged 30 and under and those aged over 30. Charts 12 and 13 illustrate the spread of values between institutions for those aged 30 and under and those aged over 30 respectively.

Sourced from Table T3e of the Performance Indicators.

Sourced from Table T3e of the Performance Indicators.

Return after a year out

Further information is provided in Table T4a about full-time first degree entrants who started at university or college in 2007/08, but were not in higher education in 2008/09. Nationally, 12.7% of young full-time first degree students and 12.4% of mature full-time first degree students in this category returned to their original institution in 2009/10, with a further 14.0% of young full-time first degree students and 6.1% of mature full-time first degree students transferring to another institution (sourced from table T4a).

Similar figures are provided in Table T4b for full-time other undergraduate entrants who started at university or college in 2007/08, but were not in higher education in 2008/09. Nationally, 7.5% of young full-time other undergraduate students and 11.2% of mature full-time other undergraduate students in this category returned to their original institution in 2009/10, with a further 6.1% of young full-time other undergraduate students and 4.9% of mature full-time other undergraduate students transferring to another institution (sourced from table T4b).

Projected outcomes

The projected outcomes in Table T5 summarise the pattern of movements of students at institutions between 2008/09 and 2009/10. They give the outcomes that would be expected from starters at the institution in 2008/09 if these progression patterns were to remain unchanged over the next few years.

The sector averages for the UK and its constituent countries are obtained by taking a (weighted) average of all the relevant institutional values. They show that 78.8% of full-time first degree students starting at an institution in 2008/09 are expected to qualify from that institution with a degree and 12.3% are expected to get no qualification. A further 6.0% are expected to transfer to another institution (sourced from table T5). The projected percentage of students who leave before gaining any award, and who neither return to study nor transfer to another institution, is less than 25% for the majority of institutions. Table N [xls 23 KB] and Table O [xls 23 KB] provide a time series of the projected percentages of full-time first degree starters expected to gain a degree or neither obtain an award nor transfer respectively by country of HEI. Chart 14 illustrate the spread of values between institutions, for those projected to obtain no award nor transfer to another institution.

Sourced from Table T5 of the Performance Indicators.

Module completion rates

Table T6 looks at module completion rates for part-time students. The provision of this information is dependent on how student data are returned to HESA. Only institutions in Wales are required to return a module record to HESA, therefore this table only includes data on these institutions. The table shows what percentage of modules, undertaken by part-time students, are successfully completed and some statistics to put this percentage into context. For 2009/10, 85.4% of the relevant modules had results provided, and in 81.1% of cases the module was passed. On average each part-time student undertook 2.5 modules, and each module was worth an average 14.7% full-time equivalent.

Research indicators

Research indicators, which are given in Table R1, are different in kind to other indicators, in that they do not wholly relate to the student population. They measure research output (as shown by the number of PhDs awarded and the amount of research grants or contracts for which expenditure has been incurred) against resource inputs (namely, academic staff costs and the funding councils’ allocations for research).

These indicators do not measure research quality as the Research Assessment Exercise does that.

Research indicators are all standardised to a value of 1 and take account of the differing ratios of output to input in different cost centres. A value of 1 for an indicator shows that the institution is producing the same as the rest of the sector, relative to its input. A value below 1 shows it is producing less than the sector, and a value greater than 1 shows that it is producing more than the sector, again relative to its input.

The indicators using academic staff costs as the input are less variable between the years than the indicators which use funding councils’ research allocation, in part because the amount of funding for some institutions is very small relative to that for the large research universities.

Employment indicator

The employment indicators are based on the responses to the Destination of Leavers from Higher Education (DLHE) survey, which replaced the First Destinations survey. This summary was updated on 15 July 2011 to include 2009/10 Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education data.

In 2009/10, the response rate to the survey for those graduating from full-time courses with a first degree was 83.0%. The response rates for those graduating from part-time first degree, full-time other undergraduate and part-time undergraduate courses were 76.9%, 79.7% and 76.1% respectively. Table P [xls 23 KB] shows a time series of response rates for full-time first degree qualifiers and Table Q [xls 22 KB] shows response rates of qualifiers by level of qualification and mode of qualification for 2009/10.

Table R [xls 23 KB] shows the employment outcomes of full-time first degree graduates by academic year, based on all respondents to the survey. In 2009/10, the proportion of graduates who were in employment (excluding those in employment and further study) six months after leaving was 61.9%, a further 7.0% were in employment and further study and 14.5% were in further study only. Table S [xls 22 KB] shows the employment outcomes by level of qualification and mode of qualification for 2009/10, based on all respondents to the survey.

The percentages given in Table R and Table S differ from the employment indicator shown in tables E1a - E1d which is based on all respondents to the survey who are classed as working or studying or as unemployed and seeking work, see employment definitions for details. Chart 15 shows the spread of the employment indicator across institutions.

Sourced from Table E1a of the Performance Indicators.

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