Education: participation in higher education

Chart 1 shows percentage of young full-time first degree entrants to Higher Education from 'low participation' areas in 2003/04 by region/country within the UK. These are figures originally published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency. 'Low participation areas are defined by their postcode as areas known to have a low proportion of 18 and 19 year-olds in higher education.

In the UK in 2003/04 13.9% of young full-time first degree entrants to Higher Education came from 'low participation' areas. The percentage for Scotland was higher at nearly 20%, but the region with the highest percentage of new young entrants from low participation areas was the North East of England (24.6%).

Chart 2 shows the percentage of young full-time first degree entrants from NS-Sec classes 4-7 in 2003/04 by region/country within the UK. The National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SeC) has been introduced by the Government to replace Social Class based on Occupation (also known as the Registrar General's Social Class) and Socio-Economic Groups (SEG). The NS-Sec categories 4-7 encompass: 4 - Small employers and own account workers; 5 - Lower supervisory and technical occupations; 6 - Semi-routine occupations; 7 - Routine occupations.

On a UK basis 28.6% of young full-time first degree entrants are from NS-Sec classes 4-7. The Scotland figure is almost identical at 28.5%.