Continuation and transfer rates

The methodology and student population used to calculate continuation in this release are different from previous releases.

This means the information we have published on these pages should not be directly compared with previous releases when making inferences about continuation trends.

Read more about these changes

We have calculated continuation rates in a slightly different way, but the main difference between this and previous releases is the change in student population:

Undergraduate programmes that do not lead to a degree have much lower continuation rates than those that do.

The continuation rate for universities (as in the previous population) is higher than that of all higher education providers (new population).

As such, widening the student population has reduced the overall continuation rates.

This can be seen in the chart below, which provides continuation rates between 2010-11 and 2015-16 calculated using the previous and current methods.

The same continuation trends are observed, but values are lower for the new continuation rates.

Limiting the current calculations to only first degrees increases the overall continuation rates and they become closer to the previously calculated continuation rates.

Contact us

If you have any questions or feedback on these pages, please contact William Rimington at [email protected] or the Foresight and Insight team at [email protected]