Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the attrition rate was for students on midwifery courses in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) analysis of Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) individualised student records provides non-continuation rates for midwives.
HEFCE define non-continuation as students starting the first year of study but who do not to go on to study a second year.
The table below shows the continuation rates for home students on midwifery degrees in English Higher Education Institutes between first and second year. This includes the latest available data from 2014-15, which shows a 93% continuation rate (so a 7% attrition rate).
| Continuing at same provider | |||
Profession | 2011-12 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 |
Midwifery | 91% | 91% | 92% | 93% |
Source: HESA Healthcare Indicators - produced for the Department by HEFCE
The data for 2015/16 will be available in summer 2018.