Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for each of the last five years for which figures are available, what was the total number of (a) applicants and (b) graduates for English degree courses at universities in England.

The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) does not publish data on the number of applicants to each course.

However, UCAS does publish data on applications to full-time undergraduate courses at UK higher education (HE) providers in their End of Cycle Data Resources pages. Each applicant can make up to 5 applications.

The table below shows the numbers of main scheme applications to undergraduate English studies courses at English HE providers for application cycles 2016 to 2020.

Applications¹ to undergraduate English studies courses at English HE providers - application cycles 2016 to 2020

Source: UCAS End of Cycle data resources https://www.ucas.com/data-and-analysis/undergraduate-statistics-and-reports/ucas-undergraduate-sector-level-end-cycle-data-resources-2020.

[1] Does not refer to individual applicants. Each unique applicant can make up to 5 main scheme applications. This does not cover applicants who applied Direct to Clearing or applicants who applied directly to the provider. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5.

[2] Refers to application cycle year. The 2020 cycle covers applicants typically entering higher education in the 2020/2021 academic year.

[3] English studies defined as principal category Q3 of the Joint Academic Coding System (JACS). This code excludes those studying Imaginative Writing (I8). More information on JACS codes can be found here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/jacs.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes statistics on qualifications obtained at UK HE providers. The latest data refers to academic year 2019/20.

The table below shows the numbers of first-degree qualifiers in English studies at English HE providers between academic years 2015/16 and 2019/20.

Information for the academic year 2019/20 is provided in a separate column due to the introduction of a new subject classification system, the Common Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH).

Figures for the academic year 2019/20 are not directly comparable with previous years, because “Studies of specific authors” and “Creative writing” are now included in the ‘English Studies’ category. Excluding those categories gives a count of 8,110 qualifiers in the academic year 2019/20, although this is still not directly comparable with earlier years due to the new coding methodology.

First-degree qualifiers⁴ in English studies courses at English HE providers⁵ - academic years 2015/16 to 2019/20

Source: HESA Student open data pages, https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-19 and https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-51.

[4] Counts are based on full-person-equivalents. Where a student is studying more than one subject, they are apportioned between the subjects that make up their course. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5, in line with HESA rounding conventions: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/definitions/students#rounding-and-suppression-strategy.

[5] Data between the academic years 2015/16 and 2018/19 excludes a small minority of qualifiers from alternative providers.

[6] English studies is defined as principal category Q3 of the Joint Academic Coding System (JACS). More information on JACS codes can be found here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/jacs.

[7] English studies is defined as Common Aggregate Hierarchy level 2 (CAH2), which is the sum of codes “19-01-01 English studies (non-specific)”, “19-01-02 English language”, ”19-01-03 Literature in English”, “19-01-04 Studies of specific authors”, “19-01-05 Creative writing” and “19-01-06 Others in English studies”. More information on CAH codes can be found here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/hecos/cah-about.