290 UNITED KINGDOM

1. Key indicators
United Kingdom EU average

2014 2017 2014 2017

Education and training 2020 benchmarks

Early leavers from education and training (age 18-24) 11.8% 10.6% 11.2% 10.6%

Tertiary educational attainment (age 30-34) 47.7% 48.3% 37.9% 39.9%

Early childhood education and care 13,d 16 13 16

98.2% 100.0% 94.2% 95.3%
(from age 4 to starting age of compulsory primary education)

Reading 16.6% 12
17.9% 15
17.8% 12
19.7% 15

Proportion of 15 year-olds
Maths 21.8% 12
21.9% 15
22.1% 12
22.2% 15
underachieving in:
Science 15.0% 12
17.4% 15
16.6% 12
20.6% 15

Employment rate of recent graduates

by educational attainment
ISC ED 3-8 (total) 83.2% 86.6% 76.0% 80.2%
(age 20-34 having left education 1-3
years before reference year)

Adult participation in learning

ISC ED 0-8 (total) 16.3% 14.3% 10.8% 10.9%
(age 25-64)

Degree mobile graduates (ISC ED 5-8) : 0.7% 16

: 3.1% 16

Learning mobility
C redit mobile graduates (ISC ED 5-8) : 3.4% 16
: 7.6% 16

Other contextual indicators

Public expenditure on education 16 16
5.0% 4.7% 4.9% 4.7%
as a percentage of GDP

Education investment ISC ED 1-2 €8 616 : 15

€6 494 d
: 15
Expenditure on public
and private institutions ISC ED 3-4 €9 130 : 15
€7 741 d
: 15

per student in € PPS

ISC ED 5-8 €18 019 : 15
€11 187 d
: 15

Early leavers from education and Native-born 12.2% 10.8% 10.4% 9.6%
training (age 18-24) Foreign-born 9.4% 9.5% 20.2% 19.4%

Tertiary educational attainment Native-born 45.5% 45.9% 38.6% 40.6%

(age 30-34) Foreign-born 53.9% 54.7% 34.3% 36.3%

Employment rate of recent graduates ISC ED 3-4 78.5% 79.7% 70.7% 74.1%
by educational attainment
(age 20-34 having left education 1-3
years before reference year) ISC ED 5-8 86.2% 89.7% 80.5% 84.9%

Sources: Eurostat (see section 10 for more details); OECD (PISA).

Notes: data refer to weighted EU averages, covering different numbers of Member States depending on the source;
d = definition differs, 12 = 2012, 13 = 2013, 15 = 2015, 16 = 2016.
On credit graduate mobility, the EU average is calculated by DG EAC on the available countries; on degree graduate mobility,
the EU average is calculated by JRC over Eurostat and OECD data.
Further information can be found in the relevant section of Volume 1 (ec.europa.eu/education/monitor).

Figure 1. Position in relation to strongest (outer ring) and weakest performers (centre)

Source: DG Education and Culture calculations, based on data from Eurostat (LFS 2017, UOE 2016) and OECD (PISA 2015).
Note: all scores are set between a maximum (the strongest performers represented by the outer ring) and a minimum (the
weakest performers represented by the centre of the figure).

Education and Training Monitor 2018 – Country analysis October 2018

 UNITED KINGDOM 291

2. Highlights

 Spending on education remains above the EU average, but dropped in 2016 compared to
2015. Recent budget cuts may threaten the sustainability of education provision.
 Citizenship education is integral part of the curriculum but is only compulsory in England.
 Statistics show improvements in education outcomes, but the teaching agenda seems to
be oriented more toward core subjects. Serious concerns persist over training, recruiting
and retaining the required excellent teachers.
 Challenges in higher education concern inclusiveness, student wellbeing and outward
mobility.

 The UK has continued its substantial reforms related to apprenticeships, continuing

vocational education and training (VET) and the promotion of excellence in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics and VET.

3. Investing in education and training

Government expenditure on education decreased in 2016 compared to 2015, but remains
in line with the EU average. Education spending as a share of GDP dropped from 5.1 % in 2015
to 4.7 % in 2016 (equal to the EU average). Similarly, as a share of total government expenditure
it went down from 12 % in 2015 to 11.2 % in 2016 (still above the EU average of 10.2 %). The
most significant budget cuts occurred in higher education, which dropped from 7.1 % to 4.8 % of
total general government expenditure. The highest share of government spending on education is
on secondary education (48.3 %), followed by pre-primary and primary education (24.2 %).

Financial pressures are visible in the different UK administrations. In England, an

increasing number of schools, both local-authority-maintained and academies (publicly funded
independent state schools), are in deficit (BBC, 2018; Burns, 2018; Kreston, 2018), and are finding
it increasingly difficult to remain financially sustainable. The education budget in Northern Ireland
dropped by GBP 24 million in 2017/2018 compared to the year before. This required reductions, for
example, in a funding programme targeted at disadvantaged schools (Meredith, 2017). The Welsh
Government announced new investment plans for education focused on upgrades and
maintenances for further education institutions and medium-terms plans for higher education
estate rationalisation(Welsh Government, 2017a).

4. Citizenship education
Citizenship education is covered by the national curricula but with a high degree of
discretion in how it is taught. England, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own national
curricula that sets out teaching requirements for citizenship which address politics, parliament and
government, the legal system, how the economy functions, the role of the media, human rights,
and European and international relations. Teachers use topical political and social issues to help
pupils develop key skills of research, discussion and debate, as well as to represent the views of
others, think critically, evaluate and reflect. Citizenship is a compulsory separate subject in England
for grades 7 to 11 in publicly funded schools except academies (Eurydice, 2017a). The government
provides also non-compulsory programmes of study for citizenship in primary education. The same
approach is applied for students taking VET courses as for those taking general education courses.
Schools have full autonomy on how to deliver citizenship education, as long as the content is
covered.

5. Modernising school education

Participation in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is virtually universal, but
rollout of the planned provision of 30 hours free childcare raises questions about the
funding and capacity to deliver. A survey of nursery providers in England found that free

Education and Training Monitor 2018 – Country analysis October 2018