This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Age Participation Index for Scotland
12/07/2006
The Age Participation Index for Scotland (API) 2004-05 is released today. This updates the previous publication of the API in September 2005.
The Index is used to measure the proportion of young Scots entering full time higher education anywhere in the UK for the first time in a given year.
The main points are as follows:
- In 2004-05, the Age Participation Index for Scotland was 46.4 per cent. This was 2.5 per cent lower than 2003-04. The index has risen since the early 1980s, reaching a plateau of 51.5 per cent in 2000-01 and 2001-2002 but has declined by around five percentage points since then
- The fall in the index reflects the decline in the number of Scottish entrants to higher education, published in Students in higher education at Scottish institutions (published May 2006)
- In recent years participation by women has been consistently higher than by men by around 10 per cent; in 2004-05 the API for females was 51.9 per cent while the figure for males was 41.3 per cent
- Initial participation at degree level has declined by 1.8 per cent since 2003-04, standing at 27.9 per cent in 2004-05. The sub-degree component of the API declined by 0.7 percentage points from the previous year, standing at 18.5 per cent in 2004-05
- The largest contribution to the Scottish API is made by students entering Scottish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The Scottish HEI API stood at 29.5 per cent in 2004-05. This compared to an API of 15.0 per cent for HE entrants to Scottish Colleges and an API of 1.9 per cent for entrants to HEIs in the rest of the UK