Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > FY2003 White Paper on Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology >Part1 Chapter4 Section3.1

From the late 1980s, with a boost from the government, the higher education population in the UK increased rapidly. The number of students, including part-time students, proceeding to higher education currently exceeds the population of 18-year-olds that normally enter schools of higher education. This entrance ratio of over 100 percent is due to the large number of adult students. The ratio among students up to age 30 is 43 percent, and the government has set a goal of raising this to 50 percent by 2010.

The government is also putting energy into student aid to assist advancement. Not all students are required to pay the tuition fees introduced in 1998; based on financial situations, over half of students are receiving reductions or exemptions. Furthermore, deferment of tuition fee payment until after graduation will be recognized starting in 2006, and the introduction of an educational hardship scholarship (1,000 pounds per year) for students from low-income homes is scheduled from 2004.

One factor behind the dramatic increase in the number of adult students is the increase in part-time education. As of 2001, 36 percent of all students at the department level and 63 percent of all students at the graduate school level are part-time students. The Open University, which was established in 1971, has also offered classes using radio and television, and has contributed to the expansion of learning opportunities for adults. The number of students reached about 190,000 in 2001 (the number of students at The Open University is included in the advancement ratios cited above).

In recent years, The Open University has widely been incorporating the use of the Internet and other information technologies, and the means of offering classes is in the process of changing. In the interest of using these kinds of telecommunications methods to expand dramatically further learning opportunities, the government established the University for Industry in 1998. This university does not confer degrees. Rather, it is an organization that provides existing continuing education college-level education and training programs over the Internet, etc. As of May 2003, roughly 880,000 people have been learning from the University for Industry.

The government is also addressing foreign students. In 2001, it established an "e-university" that offers existing university degree programs over the Internet. As of 2003, over 15 universities, including Cambridge University and London University, are offering degree programs to the world via the e-university.