Fewer poor students going to university

Ambitious Government plans to get half of all 18- to 30-year-olds into higher education received a setback with the announcement of the latest intake figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

According to HESA the proportion of first-year students from poorer backgrounds has fallen as has the total entering universities from state schools. The fall is a slight one but is nevertheless a blow to the Government's plans as ministers had hoped to see an increase in both categories. Higher Education minister Bill Rammell acknowledged the setback saying he was 'disappointed that the percentages of young full-time students from disadvantaged backgrounds have not increased since last year.'

The number of new students from poorer backgrounds fell from 28.6% in 2004-05 to 28.2% last year. Critics say that the downturn is due to tuition fees but the numbers also fell in Scotland (where there are no tuition fees) albeit on a smaller scale - from 26.9% to 26.7%.

The picture is further complicated by the fact that Scotland also has the highest first-year drop-out rate with 12% of students packing in their studies after a year compared to 9.5% across the UK as a whole. Bell College, in Hamilton, has a drop-out rate of over 30% and both Napier University in Edinburgh and Paisley University have rates approaching one in five.

The proportion of new students coming from state schools also fell slightly, from 86.8% to 86.7% though most universities have a state intake of well over 90%. The lower average is produced by lower state intakes in some specialist institutions as well as a continuing low number at Oxford and Cambridge where just over half of all new first-years are from a state school background.

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