Key Statistics 2002
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) is responsible for the framework for the recognition of Access to Higher Education courses. It exercises this responsibility through a network of 28 authorised validating agencies (AVAs): consortia of further and higher education institutions. Access courses are designed for mature students who wish to enter higher education but who may have few, if any, prior qualifications. They are targeted at under-represented and disadvantaged groups. In 2001-02, there were 1,182 QAA-recognised Access courses across England and Wales.
This brief overview is based on work undertaken by QAA, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), and the Further Education Funding Council for Wales (ELWA). QAA is grateful for the cooperation of these organisations in this joint project to develop the public information available about Access to Higher Education provision and its contribution to widening participation.
These organisations have attempted to provide answers to a number of key questions about Access to HE students and the courses on which they study:
- How many Access students are there?
- What is known about Access students?
- Where do Access students study?
- What do Access students study?
- How successful are Access students?
The answers provided to these questions differ according to the purposes of the different data collection exercises, which determine matters such as the collection date, the student cohort and specific definitions within categories. Thus, while individual data sets have been checked for accuracy and reliability, it is not always possible to make meaningful comparisons, or to draw conclusions which assume that data can be tracked through from one source to another.
QAA, working with LSC and ELWa has produced the data about Access courses and students while they are on the course. The data relating to HE applications, has been provided by UCAS, while that which describes former Access students in HE is provided by HESA.
All data presented relates to 2000-01. Please note that students who were recorded by QAA as registered on Access courses during that year, and those who were recorded by UCAS as applying to HE during that year, would not be registered on HE courses until 2001-02, at the earliest. The statistics presented by HESA about students who registered on HE courses during 2000-01, refers to students who, in the main, were on Access courses and applied to HE during 1999-2000.
We have endeavoured to present the data in a way which makes this clear, but would also refer readers to the detailed statistical information on which this overview is based, and further information about the QAA Access Recognition Scheme for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, on the QAA web site at www.qaa.ac.uk