Scandal as a THIRD of students drop out of university
Dropping out: Record numbers of students are quitting university
Student drop-out rates at former polytechnics range between 30 and 40 per cent, according to disturbing official research.
More than 76,000 students who started their studies in 2008 will fail to graduate this summer, the Higher Education Statistics authority predicts.
That equates to a national drop-out rate of 21 per cent. Yet at London Metropolitan the figure is expected to be 46 per cent, with 2,085 not completing their studies.
Bolton University is in line to lose 40.6 per cent of its students, the University of East London 36 per cent and London South Bank 32 per cent. The UHI Millennium Institute in Scotland is heading for 51.9 per cent.
One institution, Birkbeck, has lost an incredible 67 per cent, although this is based on a tiny intake of just 40 students.
Elite universities fared well with Cambridge losing just 2.5 per cent of its students over three years. Bristol lost 8 per cent, Imperial College, which has high numbers of foreign students, lost 15.8 per cent and Manchester lost 12.4 per cent.
The startling figures come as universities seeking to charge more than £6,000 will have to show improved retention rates as part of their agreement with the Office for Fair Access.
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ELITE COLLEGES SNUB STATE PUPILS
The majority of elite universities have failed to recruit more students from poorer backgrounds, official figures show.
Twelve of the 20 Russell Group universities admitted fewer state school pupils in 2009/10 than the year before and two admitted the same number. Oxford and Cambridge were among the culprits.
A third of universities failed to meet a national benchmark for the number of state school pupils they were expected to admit.
In 2009, such pupils made up 88.8 per cent of the student intake – a rise of three percentage points. That was due, in part, to a 10,000 increase in student numbers.
Among the universities to accept fewer private school youngsters were Newcastle, the London School of Economics, Liverpool and University College London. The institution with the least state pupils was Oxford with 54.3 per cent, followed by Cambridge with 59.3 per cent, Durham with 59.2 per cent and St Andrews with 59.4 per cent.
David Willetts, the universities minister, has said pupils from lesser schools should be helped into universities even at the expense of their wealthier counterparts.
But Professor Alan Smithers, an education expert, said this was misguided: ‘It will weaken the universities and the country.
‘Universities should be free to select the most talented of people who put themselves forward. It is wrong to take into account social and geographical factors.’
Some 21.2 per cent of university students were pupils at private schools.
Seven per cent of pupils are educated at private schools.
Tuition fees are expected to average £8,600, with some former polytechnics, such as Aston, charging the full £9,000.
Some commentators accuse low-ranking universities of making money by giving places to students incapable of completing a degree.
‘Some universities have a lot of applicants and are highly selective and some take whoever they can get,’ said Professor Alan Smithers, an education expert at Buckingham University.
‘Not all university degrees are of the same standard but there is a limit to which even the most accommodating can lower the bar. A lot of young people are being tempted into higher education by its availability but they are not necessarily capable of coping.
‘Others realise that the degree they have chosen is not going to help them get a good job.’ The Higher Education Statistics Agency predicts that 76,563 students who started degrees in 2008 will drop out of university.
That represents 21.2 per cent of all full-time first degree entrants in 2008.
And more than a third of universities are not on track to meet their targets on student retention.
The drop-outs either abandon higher education entirely, transfer to other universities or gain lesser qualifications.
Universities defended the figures for the 2008 intake, saying they showed an improvement of 0.3 per cent on 2007.
But the slight decline in overall dropout rates may be linked to the recession as record unemployment rates force young people to stay in education.
The HESA statistics also showed that 89.9 per cent of graduates were either employed or undertaking further studies after leaving university.
But there were wide differences between institutions.
Taking out specialist colleges, Surrey University had the highest employment rate at 96.9 per cent.
But one in four graduates at London Met and London South Bank were not in work.
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