I've picked up your messages about the Sunday Times. I wanted to let
you know that the following is the advice we have circulated to press
officers:
I've now talked to ST (Judith O'Reilly). She's not clear about what
story they are trying to develop - 'looking for ideas'. I have
expressed our collective frustration at dealing with unfocussed
requests, particularly at short notice.
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There is currently no standard method of calculating student 'drop out'
rates in higher education. HEFCE are developing a methodology and
figures should be available next year.
Any figures currently in circulation are likely to be highly misleading.
The figures circulated to institutions by HEFCE earlier this year were
their first stab at developing meaningful data. They did not make them
publicly available because they were aware that, being a first stab,
they were likely to be wrong, and wanted to give institutions a chance
to comment.
Feedback from institutions showed that they needed to amend their
methodology, so they are now doing that.
Moreover, HEFCE now have statistics for the year following that on which
the circulated figures were based, and will be using these as the base
for their next calculation.
The plan is to publish average sector-wide statistics in the early New
Year (at least for English institutions), using their revised
methodology and base, and to circulate revised institutional figures for
further checking. We are discussing with HEFCE how this can best be
handled, media-wise.
So publication of any of the figures circulated earlier in the year is
likely to be as misleading as any other figures.
Moreover the figures are only about full-time undergraduates. (HEFCE is
looking at the possibility of calculating module completion rates for
part-time students next year, but this is at an early stage)
It's up to each institution to decide whether it wants to offer figures
to the Sunday Times, given the above.
Hope this helps
Barry
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