Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many young people from (a) Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency, (b) North Yorkshire and (c) Yorkshire and the Humber (i) applied for and (ii) started a degree course in each year since 2009-10.

The latest available information on applicants is shown in Table 1. Comparable figures for North Yorkshire are not held centrally.

Table 1

UCAS applicants to full-time undergraduate courses from Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency, and Yorkshire and the Humber

Source: UCAS

Numbers have been rounded to the nearest 5.

1. This analysis uses country specific age definitions that align with the cut off points for school and college cohorts within the different administrations of the UK. For England, ages are defined on the 31^st August. Defining ages in this way matches the assignment of children to school cohorts.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes data on students at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The number of young (under 21) entrants to UK HEIs who were domiciled in Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency, North Yorkshire, and the Yorkshire and the Humber region prior to starting their course is shown in Table 2. HESA figures for 2013/14 will be available in January 2015. There are differences in the coverage of UCAS and HESA: the UCAS figures cover applicants to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), Further Education Colleges (FECs), and Alternative Providers (APs) of HE in the UK; the HESA figures cover HEIs only, plus the University of Buckinghamshire. Not all applicants apply via UCAS: some apply directly to institutions. In addition, some applicants who obtain a place via UCAS opt to defer entry until the following year.

Table 2

Young ⁽¹⁾ entrants ⁽²⁾ domiciled ⁽³⁾ in Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency ⁽⁴⁾, North Yorkshire local authority and Yorkshire and Humber government office region

UK Higher Education Institutions

Academic years 2009/10 to 2012/13

Source: HESA Student Record

Notes:

(1) Young refers to students aged under 21 on 31^st August in the reporting year

(2) Entrants refers to students in their first year of study

(3) Domicile refers to a students' home or permanent address prior to starting their course

(4) Parliamentary Constituency boundaries were revised from the 6^th May 2010 UK General Election.