31 July 2014 
Matt Sisson, Projects and Membership Manager
Average English HE sector retention figures are at an all-time high, according to data published by HEFCE this week. The funding council find that the percentage of full-time students who do not continue into a second year of higher education (HE) in England has decreased from 8.5% in 2009/10 to 6.6% in 2011/12.
However the average figure disguises significant variance between demographic and academic groups. Men were a third more likely to drop-out after the first year than women, with the percentage of mature drop-outs almost double that of young leavers. Black entrants were more likely to drop-out (9.4%) than other ethnic groups, while entrants from poorer socio-economic groups and from areas with lower historical participation were also less likely to continue after year one compared to better-off peers.
The figures also show variance between subjects. “Computer science had the highest percentage of entrants no longer in HE in 2011-12 compared with other subjects at 11 per cent in 2011-12. Medicine and dentistry had the lowest rate at 1.9 per cent in 2011-12”, the summary concludes.
