ABSTRACT
Early geo-demographic classifications were updated relatively infrequently using predominantly decennial census data. The rate of change in the Higher Education sector in particular is very rapid, and therefore it makes sense to consider the longitudinal profile of the recent past. This chapter examines how the Higher Education sector has variable growth rates between courses within institutions. Some courses over the period 2002 to 2006 have shown large increases, such as Forensic Science, whereas others are in rapid decline, such as Computer Science. The changing composition of the students who were attending both courses and institutions was examined, firstly through examining the NS-SEC classification which suggests a trend of increasing rates of students classified as of "unknown" NS-SEC. Students with missing data were found to be disproportionately from ethnic minority groups, within the FE sector or reapplying from within a university and also from predominantly urban areas.
