Background to the Research

• This report provides an overview of patterns of participation in higher education in NI.

Research Approach

• The author analyses a range of official statistics (mainly from the DENI statistical series) as well as survey and other research findings.

Main findings

• In terms of the number of higher education entrants per capita (aged under 21) NI compares well with the rest of the UK. However it compares less well for mature students.
  
• There is potential for increasing participation in higher education. The low level of participation of mature students indicates room for expansion as does the substantial variation in the rates of staying on beyond school leaving age. Similarly the possibility exists that talent is being lost through failure to motivate secondary school students. The policy of restricting the number of full-time undergraduate entrants during the mid to late 1990s effectively capped provision in NI.
  
• While the number of full-time entrants to higher education has doubled between 1985/56 and 1997/98, the more striking changes have been the growth of part-time numbers (an increase of 229%).
  
• NI would not have such a high rate of participation in higher education were it not for the migration of 35-40% of each year cohort - mostly into the rest of the UK. Based on 1990/91 data, NI has 36 places per 1000 aged 15-19 compared with 70 places in Scotland and 51 in England and Wales.
  
• The lack of higher education places in NI has resulted in a demand by the universities for increasingly higher entry grades - reducing the chances of a NI place to students with lower 'A'- level marks.
  
• Other factors affect patterns of migration: some students are simply determined to leave NI (the 'determined' leavers), others are determined to stay (the 'determined' stayers).
  
• The rate of increase in female entrants to higher education has been faster than that of males during the early to late 1990s.
  
• NI has relatively more students from the manual social classes than is the case elsewhere in the UK.
  
• The proportion of Catholic entrants has risen between 1973 and 1985. This is not just because of an increase in the Catholic population of the relevant age, but because of rising Catholic attainment at school.