More degree students graduating with firsts than 2:2s or below
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- 12 Jan 2021
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More than 100,000 students graduated with top honours from British universities last summer, according to official data that also shows a steep slump in the numbers of part-time and mature students in higher education.
The number awarded first-class degrees was 101,000, 26% of the total, according to figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, continuing a trend of annual increases. In 2012-13, 18% of undergraduates received firsts, or nearly 70,000 in total.
For the first time last summer, more students graduated with firsts than received lower second-class degrees (2:2s) or worse. Around half of students received upper seconds (2:1s), a proportion that has remained stable for several years.
More than 14,000 more women than men received firsts. Just 4% of women graduating last year were awarded third-class or pass degrees, compared with 6% of men.
The lobbying group Universities UK said it was important that the public had confidence in academic standards. “The sector has changed significantly in recent years, with universities putting more emphasis on the quality of teaching and investing in technology and learning support, alongside the fact that with higher fees, students may be working harder to achieve higher grades,” a spokesperson for UUK said.
The number of students in higher education, including the 2016-17 intake, rose by 2%. There was particularly strong growth in the numbers taking higher degrees, after tuition fee loans were extended to postgraduates.
The headline rise disguised continuing falls in some areas, especially the number of part-time students, down 4% in the space of a year.
Les Ebdon, the outgoing director of the Office For Fair Access, said years of steep declines in part-time student numbers since the introduction of £9,000 fees in England in 2012 was a concern.
“As part-time students are more likely to be from disadvantaged and under-represented groups, this continuing decline should be a profound concern to all those involved in widening participation,” he said. “The opportunity to study part-time can open doors and change lives, especially for people who were not able to go straight into higher education after school.”
Ebdon called on his successor at the new Office for Students to do more to arrest the decline in numbers. “Universities and colleges have been working hard to understand the reasons for this trend, but incremental change is not enough for those potential students whose talent is being wasted by a lack of flexible study options that meet their needs.”
In England, the number of part-time students aged 30 and over entering first degrees in 2016-17 was down by nearly 40% compared to 2012. But in Scotland, where local students pay no fees, the number of mature students starting their first degree was little changed.
There was further growth in the numbers of students from the EU and from China, which both rose by 7%. Last year more than 66,000 students from China began studying at UK universities.
