Student Wastage: Age

To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what the non-completion rate was of students who entered higher education between the ages of (a) 18 and 20, (b) 21 and 25, (c) 25 and 30 and (d) 30 years and above in each of the last five years. (149784)

Projected non-completion rates are released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) each year within the Performance Indicators in Higher Education publication. The latest available non-completion projections are shown in table 1.

Table 1: Proportion of UK-domiciled entrants to full-time first degree courses in UK higher education institutions (HEIs) who are projected to neither obtain an award nor transfer to another institution
Academic Year	Percentage
1999-2000	15.9
2000-01	15.0
2001-02	14.1
2002-03	14.4
2003-04	14.9
2004-05	14.2
Source: "Performance Indicators in Higher Education", published by HESA.

These non-completion rates are not available broken down by age group.

Drop-out is more likely to occur during the first year of higher education. The performance indicators also include non-continuation rates, which show the proportion of entrants who are not detected in higher education after their first year. The latest available non-continuation rates are shown in table 2.

*Table 2: Proportion of UK-domiciled entrants to full-time first degree courses at UK HEIs not continuing in higher education after their first year*
Academic year	1999/2000	2000/01	2001/02	2002/03	2003/04	2004/05
Young (under 21)	7.8	7.1	7.3	7.8	7.7	7.2
Mature (21 and over)	15.9	14.5	14.9	15.4	15.6	14.4
All entrants	9.7	8.7	9.0	9.5	9.5	8.8
Source: "Performance Indicators in Higher Education", published by HESA.

A more detailed age breakdown is not available.

Volume 463: debated on Tuesday 24 July 2007