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Age Participation Index for Scotland 2006-07
05/08/2008
The Age Participation Index (API) for Scotland 2006-07 - used to measure the percentage of young Scots entering full-time higher education within the UK for the first time that year - has been published today by Scotland's Chief Statistician.
The key findings show that:
- In 2006-07, the age participation index for Scotland was 46.9 per cent, a decrease of 0.2 per cent since 2005-06. The index has been around the 50 per cent mark for the past 10 years, reaching 51.5 per cent between 2000 and 2002. In the mid 1980s the index stood at around 20 per cent.
- Participation rates were 52.9 per cent for females and 41.2 per cent for males. The gender gap has therefore reduced slightly compared to the previous year, for which the comparable rates were 53.5 per cent and 41 per cent respectively.
- Since last year, initial participation at sub-degree level (which would, for example, include; professional qualifications, HNC/HND and other certificates, diplomas and HN units) has risen 0.6 per cent to 19.1 per cent, although it has declined by three per cent since 2000-01. Participation at first degree level has fallen by 0.7 per cent to 27.8 per cent.
- Higher Education Institutions contribute 29.6 per cent to the API figure and colleges 15.5 per cent. The share of HEIs has decreased by 0.6 per cent while colleges increased their contribution by 0.6 per cent. The share of HEIs in the rest of the UK has decreased by 0.2 per cent to 1.8 per cent in 2006-07.
This release updates the figures in Age Participation Index for Scotland, 2005-06 publication, published on June 12, 2007.
The Scottish API for a given year is defined as the number of young Scots aged under 21 who enter a full-time HE course for the first time in that year taken as a percentage of the population of 17 year-olds at 31 December in the same year. In simple terms it is an estimate of the share of 17 year olds in the population who, can be expected to enter HE for the first time before their 21 birthday, if current trends continue.
The data used to calculate the API for Scotland are collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) from Scottish colleges.
A one percent change in the overall API would correspond to a change of around 645 in the number of young student entrants (based on current estimates for the population of 17 year-olds in Scotland).