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.
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.