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PODCAST: Recovery, international, applications, 50% target

This week on the podcast we discuss the economy, the Government’s recovery plan and why some are claiming that bashing universities is “the new Brexit”.
This article is more than 4 years old

News, analysis and explanation of higher education issues from our leading team of wonks

This week on the podcast we discuss the economy, the Government’s recovery plan and why some are claiming that bashing universities is “the new Brexit”.

There’s also a road map out for making the UK the world’s most attractive global destination for international students, some new UCAS figures to give us a bit of hope and there’s a quick listen to Gavin Williamson’s speech on skills.

Hosted by Wonkhe CEO Mark Leach, and with guests Jess Strenk, Policy & Public Affairs Manager at Middlesex University, Alistair Jarvis, Chief Executive of Universities UK and Wonkhe’s Editor Debbie McVitty.

Items this week

Correlate

For OECD countries I’ve plotted the 2018 GDP per capita (indexed to 2010) against the calculated percentage of people under 25 who will enter a batchelor’s level degree during their life time. This question this week was suggested by Rachel Wolf of Public First.

So, is there a link between access to HE and GDP? Does it correlate?

The answer is no, there is no significant correlation between these measures. However the graph is well worth a look. The UK (pale orange) is slightly above average on entry rates and pretty much on the median for GDP growth since 2010, quite close to Germany. The only OECD countries with a lower entry rate and a larger positive change in GDP are Estonia and Turkey. Data is from the excellent OECD statistics resource, and where the data doesn’t exist, I’ve not plotted it.

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