Colleges blamed as a quarter of students drop out

A Commons Public Accounts Committee report today warned that figures had not improved in the past five years despite £800 million being spent on measures to support students in danger of falling by the wayside.

The MPs said the overall proportion of England's students who did not finish their courses at their original university was 22 percent - no better than in 2002.

Tory MP Edward Leigh, the committee chairman, said: "It is five years on from our last report on student retention but the percentage of students dropping out from their original universities has not budged.

"More students are being recruited from backgrounds and schools where university was not previously thought to be an option. But these are the very students who are more likely to leave early. Universities must get better at providing the kind of teaching and support services students from underrepresented groups need."

The warning came as National Audit Office figures showed that six of the 12 universities with the highest drop-out rates in Britain are in London or the South-East.

Mr Leigh said there was still too much variation between the best and worst universities for drop-out rates. His comments were borne out by London's figures. The MPs' report cited the latest NAO statistics.

The overall drop-out rate of 22 per cent relates to students from all three years. But less than five per cent of students who started degrees at elite institutions including Imperial College and King's College in September 2004 had dropped out in their first year.

In contrast, London University had the third lowest continuation rate in the country, at 83.3 per cent.

Other universities, where 13 per cent or more undergraduates either abandoned or switched courses after one year, included London Metropolitan, the University of East London, Thames Valley, Roehampton and Bedfordshire.

The problem is particularly acute in former polytechnics, which are more likely to have low-income students from local families who find it hard to cope with fee and loan debts.

Among the worst-hit subjects were maths, computer science and engineering. But Professor Rick Trainor, principal of King's College and president of Universities UK, said: "It's worth noting that the figures relate to a period in which there was a huge expansion in the numbers entering higher education, nearly 25 per cent more students between 1999-2000 and 2004-05."