Teesside - a top performer for widening participation

Teesside is one of the top universities in the country for widening participation – and comes first in the region in three of the four key Performance Indicators published today (20 July, 2006) by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

And for the second year running the Middlesbrough-based university has dramatically cut the percentage of degree students dropping-out without a qualification. This is down to 15.5% in the figures published today (compared with 18.5% in last year’s figures) and puts Teesside near the UK average of 15%.

The Higher Education Performance Indicators were introduced to track how well universities were doing in attracting students from poorer neighbourhoods into higher education (HE).

The latest figures relate to 2004/5 and show that Teesside’s student population had:

• 98.3% coming from state schools or colleges – the highest figure for the North East’s five universities – and comparing well with the national average for all UK institutions of 87.2% (98.2% for Teesside in 2003/04)
• 43.4% of young full-time undergraduate students coming from socio-economic groups 4 to 7 – top in the region and comparing with a national average of 28.7%. (42.5% for Teesside in 2003/4)
• 29% of young full-time undergraduate entrants from neighbourhoods with a traditionally low participation – second in the region and comparing with 28.3% the year before and a national average of just 14.4%
• 27.1% of mature full-time students had no previous HE experience and came from a low participation neighbourhood – top figure for the North East. This compares with a national figure of 16.2% and with Teesside’s figure up from 26.5% the year before.

Professor Graham Henderson, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Teesside, said: “I am very pleased that yet again the indicators re-affirm the highly encouraging performance of the University of Teesside in terms of widening participation and of subsequent student success.”

The Performance Indicators show a slight decline in the percentage of first degree students going on to either employment or further study – 89.4% compared with 90.2%.

The numbers getting jobs is up by 10% according to the University’s data supplied to make up the performance indicators, but the numbers going on to further study was down by 11%.

Professor Henderson said: “Our mission is to provide opportunities while pursuing excellence; and the Performance Indicators show we are on the right track on both counts. This is a great tribute to all our staff and students and bodes well for the future.”

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