asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what proportion of students at polytechnics studied arts, social science, engineering and scientific subjects, respectively, in each year from 1969 to 1974; and how this compares with university undergraduates.
The percentage of full-time and sandwich course students in polytechnics and universities who were studying each subject to first degree level in each of the three years for which figures for the 30 polytechnics are at present available was as follows:
| SUBJECT GROUP* | ||
| Arts, etc. (Groups 8, 9 and 10) | ||
| Academic year beginning | Polytechnics | Universities |
| 1971 | 9·8 | 22·1 |
| 1972 | 9·6 | 22·0 |
| 1973† | 8·6 | 22·1 |
| Social studies (Group 6) | ||
| Academic year beginning | Polytechnics | Universities |
| 1971 | 34·2 | 21·3 |
| 1972 | 34·5 | 21·8 |
| 1973† | 35·9 | 22·4 |
Technology (Group 3) | ||
Academic year beginning
| Polytechnics
| Universities
|
| 1971 | 28·0 | 16·8 |
| 1972 | 27·5 | 16·1 |
| 1973† | 26·3 | 15·3 |
Science (Group 5) | ||
Academic year beginning
| Polytechnics
| Universities
|
| 1971 | 20·8 | 25·5 |
| 1972 | 20·2 | 25·4 |
| 1973† | 19·1 | 25·0 |
Other (Groups 1, 2, 4 and 7) | ||
Academic year beginning
| Polytechnics
| Universities
|
| 1971 | 7·2 | 14·3 |
| 1972 | 8·2 | 14·7 |
| 1973† | 10·1 | 15·2 |
* Classified according to the 10 Subject Groups in the United Kingdom Subject Classification for Education Statistics. | ||
| † Provisional. | ||