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Higher Education Admissions

Volume 454: debated on Tuesday 5 December 2006

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what estimate he has made of the number of school leavers in England who enrolled in Scottish universities in each of the last three years; (106081)

(2) what estimate he has made of the number of school leavers in England who enrolled in Welsh universities in each of the last three years;

(3) what estimate he has made of the number of school leavers in Scotland who enrolled in English universities in each of the last three years;

(4) what estimate he has made of the number of school leavers in England who enrolled in universities in (a) Scotland and (b) Northern Ireland in 2006-07.

The latest available information for 2003 to 2005 entry is shown in the first two tables. Provisional figures for 2006 entry are shown in the third table; final figures for 2006 entry will be available in January 2007.

Students from England accepted for entry to full-time undergraduate courses by country of study for 2003 to 2005 entry

Country of study

Year of entry

England

Wales

Scotland

Northern Ireland

Total

2003

263,958

8,986

3,897

89

276,930

2004

263,773

9,153

4,067

86

277,079

2005

287,909

9,482

4,287

120

301,798

Source:

Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

Students from Scotland accepted for entry to full-time undergraduate courses by country of study for 2003 to 2005 entry

Country of study

Year of entry

England

Wales

Scotland

Northern Ireland

Total

2003

1,989

71

26,199

19

28,278

2004

1,799

65

26,343

18

28,225

2005

1,881

64

25,710

18

27,673

Source:

Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)

Students accepted for entry to full-time undergraduate courses by area of permanent residence and country of study for 2005 and 2006 entry

Country of study

Area of permanent residence

England

Wales

Scotland

Northern Ireland

Total

England

2005

287,305

9,492

4,289

120

301,206

2006

275,616

8,333

3,668

122

287,739

Wales

2005

6,327

10,382

133

7

16,849

2006

5,378

11,321

98

4

16,801

Scotland

2005

1,879

64

25,685

18

27,646

2006

1,758

59

24,836

13

26,666

Northern Ireland

2005

3,168

109

1,262

9,370

13,909

2006

3,576

112

1,231

8,017

12,936

Source:

Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS)

The trends in cross-border flows show that between 2005 and 2006 there has been a bigger drop in English students studying in Wales (down 12.2 per cent.) and Scotland (down 14.5 per cent.), than for those studying in England (down 4.1 per cent.), although those studying in Northern Ireland has slightly increased (1.7 per cent.) but the numbers are small. In other words, the introduction of variable tuition fees in 2006/07 has not seen an increase in the number of students from England opting to study in Scotland and Wales.

The trends in cross-border flows for Scottish students show that there has been a bigger drop in Scottish students studying in England (down 6.4 per cent.), Wales (down 7.8 per cent.) and Northern Ireland (down 27.8 per cent.) than for those studying in Scotland (down 3.3 per cent.).