Dear David

Temporary suspension of National Statistics designation for Participation Measures in Higher Education

Thank you for your letter of 8 November requesting temporary suspension of National Statistics status for the Participation Measures in Higher Education (HEIP) due to changes to the methodology. I welcome your team’s openness and proactive engagement with us on this matter.

Based on the information you have provided regarding the move to a cohort measure for the HEIP statistics, I support your decision to temporarily remove National Statistics designation. There are a number of clear benefits to this change in methodology, including the ability to calculate higher education participation rates for sub-groups of the population, an improvement to the overall accuracy of the estimates, and a simplification of the method which, as a result, will be easier to communicate to users.

We will continue to engage with your statisticians, via our Children, Education and Skills team, and look forward to considering the restoration of National Statistics status once you are assured that the statistics can meet the standards expected by the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Yours sincerely

Ed Humpherson
Director General for Regulation