- guardian.co.uk, Thursday 20 July 2006 09.43 BST
Information in these tables is published annually, and provide performance indicators relating to higher education. The figures are based on data submitted to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) by publicly funded higher education institutions in the United Kingdom for the 2004-05 academic year.
Access tables
Widening participation indicators
The first two columns concern widening participation indicators, that is, what proportion of entrants come from various under-represented groups such as state schools or colleges, specified socioeconomic classes and low-participation neighbourhoods. Both columns represent young full-time entrants to first degree programmes of study only.
Socioeconomic classification
The information on socioeconomic classification is taken from the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC). The classifications used are:
1 Higher managerial and professional occupations
2 Lower managerial and professional occupations
3 Intermediate occupations
4 Small employers and own account workers
5 Lower supervisory and technical occupations
6 Semi-routine occupations
7 Routine occupations The performance indicator is the proportion of students from NS-SEC classes 4 to 7 (Hesa field SEC codes 4, 5, 6 and 7) out of those from NS-SEC classes 1 to 7. NS-SEC class 8, long-term unemployed or never worked, has been included with unknown classification for the purposes of the performance indicators.
Low-participation neighbourhoods
This definition uses work carried out into the rates of participation in higher education of young people. Areas for which the participation rate is less than two-thirds of the UK average rate have been defined as low-participation neighbourhoods. Students have been allocated to these neighbourhoods on the basis of their postcodes, using the Super Profiles classification.
Leavers obtaining first degrees
This column represents the number of graduates who say they are working or studying (or both) as a percentage of all those who are working or studying or seeking work. Data is collected from the new Destinations of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE) survey which replaced the First Destinations Supplement (FDS) in 2002-03.
Non-continuation rates
These figures measure how good an institution is at retaining the students it recruits. It is based on tracking students from the year they enter an institution to the following year and provides information about where the students are in that second year.
For students who entered each institution in 2003-04, these tables provide the percentage who continue at the institution or qualify, the percentage who transfer to another HE institution and the percentage who leave higher education. The figures here are for young entrants only.
Research tables
These indicators look at numbers of PhDs awarded and amount of research grants and contracts obtained, relative to the funding council allocation of quality related (QR) research funds to that institution.
The first two columns represent the proportion of PhDs awarded per proportion of funding council QR funding allocation for research, and the proportion of research grants and contracts obtained per proportion of funding council QR funding allocation for research.
· For more detailed explanation of the methodology click here.
