Number of students going on to higher education almost reaches 50%

The number of students in England entering higher education came close to touching the magic 50% mark – long seen as an objective by policymakers – in 2011-12, as students spurned gap years to avoid the imposition of higher tuition fees.

Statistics published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills show that 49.3% of young people in England entered higher education in the last academic year, the highest rate on record and just a shade below the 50% mark that successive governments have vowed to reach.

But the rise in numbers was artificially driven up by the decision of thousands of school-leavers to go straight on to higher or further education, rather than defer their entry by a year or more, in order to beat the increase in tuition fees from £3,290 to a maximum of £9,000 a year from 2012-13.

According to Ucas, the university entrance administrator, fewer than 10,000 students chose to defer a place in 2011-12, compared with the more than 23,000 who had done the same the previous academic year. In January, Ucas reported that the numbers choosing to defer in 2012-13 had returned to the earlier, higher levels.

In total, 342,000 students entered higher education for the first time in 2011-12, an increase of 17,000 compared with 2010-11, while the higher education initial participation rate (HEIPR) went up to 49% after three previous years when it had remained stuck at around 46%.

A wide chasm remains between male and female participation rates: in 2011-12, females made up 55% of initial entrants, compared with just 45% of males. That 10-percentage-point gap has persisted for several years.

The HEIPR measure – which counts 17-to-30-year-olds from England studying at UK institution for the first time – was used by the Labour government to judge progress towards its goal of a 50% participation rate. In 2006-07, the first year that HEIPR records were calculated, the rate was 42.5%.

Meanwhile, a new survey by the Institute of Education has found that the number of jobs in the UK requiring a degree has overtaken the number not requiring any qualifications. More than one in four jobs are now only available to those with degrees, the skills and employment survey found.