UCU responds to static student participation rates

Participation Rates in Higher Education: Academic Years 1999/2000-2006/07 (Provisional), reveal an Initial Participation Rate (IPR) of 39.2% for people aged 17-30 in 1999-2000 and a provisional 39.8% in 2006/07. The union said that the fall in participation in 2006-07, from 42.5% in 2005-06, reflected the introduction of the government's variable top-up fees for full-time undergraduates that year.

Commenting on the statistics, UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'This minimal increase over the past eight years is worrying, especially considering the government's bold commitment to get 50 per cent of young people to university by the end of the decade. There is still not the evidence to support a theory that charging more for higher education is likely to encourage students, particularly from non-traditional backgrounds, to study at university.

'The self-congratulatory remarks of higher education minister Bill Rammell about applications and acceptances since 2006-07 are ill-judged, given these latest participation figures. The drop in students in 2006-07 from the previous year must serve as a warning to the government as it prepares next year's review into the impact of top-up fees. Today's statistics do not include social class or ethnicity and we will be monitoring those statistics closely when they are released.'

The full statistics can be seen at www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway.