Government set to miss university targets
The government is going to miss its target of getting half of all young people in Britain into higher education by 2010, a new report warns.
Declining numbers of young people and stagnating levels of people taking A-levels are likely to keep the university attendance rate at its current level of 43 per cent, research from the Higher Education Policy Institute warns.
It says growth will only be revived if young people and particularly boys can be persuaded to stay in school after the age of 16, while older people should also be persuaded to participate more in higher education.
The percentage of the population aged 18 to 21 is due to fall by 1.3 per cent between now and 2016, the report says.
And while changes to the A-level system – the introduction of the AS programme in 2000 – have led to an increase in people staying on at school after GCSEs, the report warns that this has begun to stall.
“On the basis of the new data from the past two years, there is no reason to believe that there is a trend of increasing A-level participation,” the report warns.
In particular it notes a “serious concern” about the underperformance of boys at school, which, if successfully addressed, could “impact substantially” on higher education participation.
The report also highlights the social imbalance in those going to higher education and says if poorer students could be persuaded to participate, they could lead to an increase in numbers.
The introduction of higher tuition fees from next year may put many people off, however.
In response, higher education minister Bill Rammell said Labour policies were still moving towards the “important goal” of 50 per cent.
“Producing more graduates and improving access to higher education is critical to our future economic success and we are investing heavily to meet this aspiration,” he added.
