The Age Participation Index for Scotland 2005-06
The Age Participation Index ( API) for Scotland 2005-06 is released today. This updates the previous publication of the API in July 2006. The API is used to measure the percentage of young Scots entering higher education ( HE) anywhere in the UK for the first time in a given year.
The main points are as follows:
- In 2005-06, the Age Participation Index for Scotland was 47.1%, an increase of 0.7% since 2004-05. The index has been around the 50% mark for the past 10 years, reaching 51.5% between 2000 and 2002 ( table 1). In the mid 1980s the index was much lower, at around 20%.
- Over a ten year period participation by women has been around 10 percentage points higher than by men. Initial participation rates in 2005-06 were 53.5% for females (an increase of 1.6 percentage points since last year) and 41% for males (this is almost unchanged from last years figure of 41.2%).
- Components of the index have been calculated by level of study and type of institution attended. Since last year initial participation at sub-degree level has remained largely unchanged at 18.5% (a decrease of 0.1%) while participation at degree level has increased by 0.7 percentage points to 28.5%. Initial participation at sub-degree level has declined since 2000-01 (by 2.6 percentage points) ( table 2).
- The largest contribution to the Scottish API is made by students entering Scottish Higher Education Institutions ( HEIs). The Scottish HEIAPI stood at 30.2% in 2005-06. The APIs for Further Education Colleges and HEIs in the rest of the UK have remained relatively unchanged at 14.9% and 2% respectively (both decreasing by 0.1 percentage points in the last year) ( table 3).
The following tables and charts are also available on the Scottish Executive Statistics Website: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/llstatistics
Tables
Table 1 - Age Participation Index for Scotland: 1994-95 to 2005-06
Table 2 - Age Participation Index for Scotland by level of study components : 1995-96 to 2005-06
Table 3 - Age Participation Index for Scotland by type of institution components: 1995-96 to 2005-06
Charts
Chart 1 - Age Participation Index: 1994-95 to 2005-06
Chart 2 - Age Participation Index by gender: 1994-95 to 2005-06
Chart 3 - Age Participation Index by level of study: 1995-96 to 2005-06
Chart 4 - Age Participation Index by institution type: 1995-96 to 2005-06