Postgraduate Education: Ethnic Groups

(asked on 22nd June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the percentage of Black undergraduate students who progress on to postgraduate studies.


Answered by
Michelle Donelan Portrait
Michelle Donelan
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
This question was answered on 28th June 2021

The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects and publishes data on the outcomes of graduates 15 months after graduating from higher education in the graduate outcomes survey. More information is available here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/graduates.

The percentage of undergraduate leavers in the 2017/18 academic year who progressed to postgraduate study in the 15 months[1] after graduation have been provided in the table for each ethnic group.

Undergraduate leavers who progressed to postgraduate study1 by ethnicity

Leavers in the academic year 2017/18

English Higher Education Providers

Ethnicity

Undergraduate leavers from science subjects who progressed to postgraduate study 2 3

Undergraduate leavers who progressed to postgraduate study

Base count of undergraduate leavers 4

(%)

(%)

White

12.4%

11.4%

135,075

Black

11.0%

11.1%

14,405

Asian

12.4%

11.5%

22,090

Mixed

13.9%

12.1%

7,210

Other

15.2%

14.0%

2,575

Ethnicity not known

10.9%

11.9%

1,615

Total

12.4%

11.5%

182,975

Source: Department for Education analysis of the HESA Graduate Outcomes survey data

Notes:

1 Percentages refer to undergraduate leavers participating in postgraduate study during the 15-month census week for the survey, or during the interim period since graduating.

2 Subject percentages are calculated using full-person-equivalents. Where a student was studying more than one subject, they have been apportioned between the subjects that make up their course.

3 Science subjects have been identified using the HESA methodology, principal subject categories A to K of the JACS3 subject classifications framework are categorised as Science subjects. These can be found here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/support/documentation/jacs/jacs3-principal.

4 Base counts are the number of UK domiciled undergraduate leavers who responded to the GO survey, and can also be found in Figure 5 of HESA’s Open Data: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/sb257/figure-5.

[1] Includes leavers participating in postgraduate study during the 15-month census week for the survey, or during the interim period since graduating.

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