Who is missing from higher education?

Table 3 - Percentage of white students, UK, 1994/95-2004/05

Source: HESA

Another area of concern for WP is the participation of students with some form of
disability. In the UK, there has been an increase in the proportion of HE students
reporting a disability, with the proportion almost doubling over a decade even while
the numbers of students overall was growing (Table 4). It is not immediately clear
whether this increase in students with a reported disability is evidence of a widening
of opportunities, or more to do with an increase in reporting.

Table 4 - Percentage of students with disability, UK, 1994/95-2004/05

Source: HESA

It is clear that the major part of this increase has been for students with a non-visible
disability such as dyslexia (Table 5). In fact, if the figures for dyslexia alone are
subtracted from the figures for disability in Table 4, there has been no overall growth
in the proportion of other disabled students since 1994/95. The numbers involved here
are smaller than for many specific ethnic minority groups, making any claim to under-

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