The latest available figures on participation in higher education by local areas were published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) in January 2005 in “Young Participation in England”, which is available from their website at:
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/hefce/2005/05_03/.
This report shows participation rates for young people who enter higher education aged 18 or 19 for the years 1997 to 2000. The figures for Hartlepool parliamentary constituency, Tees Valley Learning and Skills Council area and the comparable figure for England, are shown in the following table. HEFCE have not produced participation rates beyond 2000.
1997 1998 1999 2000 Cohort for Hartlepool2 1,230 1,270 1,180 1,190 Young participation rate (A) for Hartlepool3 (Percentage) 20.0 20.0 20.0 20.0 Cohort for Tees Valley2 8,980 9,330 8,990 8,780 Young participation rate (A) for Tees Valley3 (Percentage) 23.0 23.0 24.0 24.0 Young participation rate (A) for England (Percentage) 29.2 28.8 29.2 29.9 1 Covers all students studying higher education courses at UK higher education institutions and other UK institutions, for example further education colleges. 2 Cohorts are reported to the nearest 10. 3 Young participation rates for constituencies are reported to the nearest per cent. Source: Higher Education Funding Council for England
The total numbers of undergraduate entrants to UK higher education institutions from Hartlepool parliamentary constituency and Tees Valley for each year since 2001/02 are given in the following table.
2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 Age Hartlepool Tees Valley Hartlepool Tees Valley Hartlepool Tees Valley Aged 18 250 1,940 235 1,910 215 1,975 Aged 19 90 810 115 820 105 825 Aged19 and over3 710 6,745 760 6,705 810 6,415 Total entrants 1,050 9,495 1,110 19,435 1,125 9,215
Age Hartlepool Tees Valley Hartlepool Tees Valley Aged 18 205 1,920 275 2,065 Aged 19 95 765 115 845 Aged19 and over3 845 7,095 875 7,150 Total entrants 1,150 9,780 1,265 10,055 1 Covers all students studying higher education courses at UK higher education institutions only. Students studying higher education courses elsewhere such as further education colleges are excluded. 2 Tees Valley covers students from five local authorities: Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington. 3 Includes a very small number of students with unknown ages or ages under 18. Note: Figures are based on the HESA standard registration population for entrants and have been rounded to the nearest five, so components may not sum to totals. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA)
The Department uses the Higher Education Initial Participation Rate (HEIPR) to assess progress on increasing first-time participation of English students aged 18-30 in higher education towards 50 per cent: the latest provisional figure for 2005/06 is 43 per cent. The HEIPR is not calculated at parliamentary constituency level or local authority level.