University Access

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what monitoring he has made of fair access to working class applicants for (a) the university of East Anglia and (b) Cambridge university. (113099)

The latest available access performance indicator information for the universities of Cambridge and East Anglia is shown in the tables. It is important to note, however, that these data are collected by and for the higher education sector although the Government are interested in what they show.

*Table 1: Proportion of young entrants to full-time first degree courses from the state sector*
Percentage
	2000/01	2001/02	2002/03	2003/04	2004/05
University of Cambridge	53.4	54.5	57.6	56.9	56.8
Against benchmark¹:	66.1	67.9	76.8	75.3	75.0
University of East Anglia	88.1	88.5	88.4	88.0	87.5
Against benchmark¹:	82.2	82.7	83.4	81.1	82.3
¹ The benchmark is a sector average which is adjusted for each institution to take into account the following factors: subject of study, qualifications on entry and age on entry. The benchmarks can be used to show how a university is performing compared to the sector as a whole, and also helps to determine whether a meaningful comparison can be drawn between two or more universities. Source: Performance Indicators in Higher Education, published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

*Table 2: Proportion of young entrants to full-time first degree courses from lower social classes (IIIm, IV and V) or lower socio-economic groups (4, 5, 6 and 7)*
Percentage
	Lower social classes (IIIm, IV and V)¹	Lower socio-economic groups (4-7)¹
	2000/01	2001/02	2002/03	2003/04	2004/05
University of Cambridge	9.1	9.3	11.3	11.4	12.4
Against benchmark²:	12.7	13.6	17.3	18.2	17.8
University of East Anglia	19.7	18.8	21.4	21.4	22.6
Against benchmark²:	22.3	22.9	24.7	22.2	24.5
¹ The National Statistics socio-economic classification was introduced in 2002/03 to replace the social class groupings. The two classifications are not directly comparable. ² The benchmark is a sector average which is adjusted for each institution to take into account the following factors: subject of study, qualifications on entry and age on entry. The benchmarks can be used to show how a university is performing compared to the sector as a whole, and also helps to determine whether a meaningful comparison can be drawn between two or more universities. Source: Performance Indicators in Higher Education, published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

*Table 3: Proportion of young entrants to full-time first degree courses from low participation neighbourhoods*
Percentage
	2000/01	2001/02	2002/03	2003/04	2004/05
University of Cambridge	4.7	4.9	5.4	6.1	5.3
Against benchmark¹:	6.7	7.4	8.9	8.9	8.7
University of East Anglia	7.9	8.7	7.6	8.2	7.8
Against benchmark¹:	11.2	11.7	12.0	11.4	11.8
¹ The benchmark is a sector average which is adjusted for each institution to take into account the following factors: subject of study, qualifications on entry and age on entry. The benchmarks can be used to show how a university is performing compared to the sector as a whole, and also helps to determine whether a meaningful comparison can be drawn between two or more universities. Source: Performance Indicators in Higher Education, published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

The Higher Education Statistics Agency is reviewing the current methodology for calculating benchmarks, with a view to developing more sophisticated alternatives.

Volume 455: debated on Thursday 11 January 2007