Graduates

Mr. Willis
To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills what his estimate is of the number of graduates who will leave university in each year between 2007-08 and 2017-18.

Bill Rammell
[holding answer 11 December 2007]: The Government do not make projections about the number of students graduating from higher education. But increasing and widening participation in HE is a priority for social and economic reasons. To achieve a world-class skills profile for the UK, we will need to deliver higher-level skills training to adults already in the workforce, as well as continuing to take action to meet our existing commitment to make progress towards a 50 per cent. HE participation rate for people aged 18-30. We will aim for at least 36% of adults to be qualified to at least Level 4 by 2014, up from 29 per cent. in 2005 and 40 per cent. by 2020. We are on target to achieve this.