Students: Disabled

To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many and what proportion of students classified as having a (a) hearing and (b) vision impairment (i) applied to and (ii) were admitted into university in each of the last 10 years. (223759)

The latest available information from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) is shown in the tables. Comparable figures for 2008 entry will be available in February 2009.

*Table 1: UK domiciled applicants to full-time undergraduate courses by disability, 1998 to 2007 years of entry*
Year of entry	Blind/partially sighted¹	Deaf/partial hearing¹
	Number	Percentage of total applicants	Number	Percentage of total applicants
1998	401	0.1	726	0.2
1999	401	0.1	728	0.2
2000	456	0.1	793	0.2
2001	598	0.1	868	0.2
2002	602	0.1	875	0.2
2003	641	0.2	900	0.2
2004	604	0.2	897	0.2
2005	707	0.2	1,078	0.2
2006	779	0.2	1,211	0.3
2007	711	0.2	1,210	0.3
¹ Applicants who are blind/partially sighted or deaf/partial hearing may be counted in the category of 2+ disabilities, therefore such applicants are excluded from the above figures. Source: Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

*Table 2: UK domiciled accepted applicants to full-time undergraduate courses by disability, 1998 to 2007 years of entry*
Year of entry	Blind/partially sighted¹	Deaf/partial hearing¹
	Number	Percentage of total applicants	Number	Percentage of total applicants
1998	293	0.1	544	0.2
1999	312	0.1	559	0.2
2000	370	0.1	621	0.2
2001	467	0.1	696	0.2
2002	501	0.2	709	0.2
2003	507	0.2	715	0.2
2004	470	0.1	722	0.2
2005	558	0.2	854	0.2
2006	589	0.2	927	0.3
2007	539	0.1	930	0.3
¹ Accepted applicants who are blind/partially sighted or deaf/partial hearing may be counted in the category of 2+ disabilities, therefore such accepted applicants are excluded from the above figures. Source: Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

Volume 480: debated on Wednesday 8 October 2008