To ask the Minister for the Economy for his assessment of the increase in the number of students dropping out of university courses, in particular his assessment of whether the cost of living crisis may have contributed to this trend.

Recent figures published by the Student Loans Company (SLC) show that student withdrawal notifications for academic year 2021/22 are higher than the previous 2 academic years. This recent increase in withdrawals applies across the UK and not just in Northern Ireland.

However, the SLC report also indicates that while Northern Ireland student withdrawal notifications for 2021/22 are higher when compared with 2019/20 and 2020/21, they are broadly in line with the (pre-pandemic) figure for 2018/19.

The number of Northern Ireland and other UK domiciled students dropping out of higher education courses during the pandemic was unusually low. The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) suggests there are likely to be multi-faceted reasons underpinning this decrease, rather than a single, direct explanation for the drop. However, during periods of economic uncertainty, there is often a trend for increased higher education enrolments. The most recent increase is therefore likely to be a ‘normalising’ of the withdrawal rates following the pandemic.