Bright Blue, the independent think tank for liberal conservatism and conservative modernisers, welcomes the DfE statistics for participation rates in higher education, which have increased despite the rise in tuition fees. However the participation rates for part-time students is still very low. The Government needs to tackle this because part-time study is crucial for people who want to retrain or gain new skills.

Commenting Ryan Shorthouse, Director of Bright Blue, said:

"Today’s figures showing that more people are entering higher education is great news. The UK needs a highly educated workforce to remain competitive internationally.

"Despite the tuition fees trebling in 2012 the participation rate has increased instead of deterring young people from attending universities, which the doom-mongers predicted.

"However, the part-time students participation rate is still very low. Part-time study is crucial to allowing people to retrain or gain new skills. The Government should tackle this by offering a new lifetime loan account to enable all adults to pay for any higher education course – full-time or part- time – in England during their lifetime."