Buckinghamshire New University has one of the highest student dropout rates in the UK, figures show, as calls are made for institutions to "think seriously" about how to encourage pupils to carry on their studies.

Universities Minister Michelle Donelan says higher education providers are letting talent go to waste by being too slow to tackle the number of students dropping out within a year.

New data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency reveals that 1,335 students aged under 21 began a full-time first degree course at Buckinghamshire New University in the 2017-18 academic year.

Of those, 175 had quit before the second year.

That means the non-continuation rate for young entrants was 13.1% – one of the highest in the country and well above the national average of 6.8 per cent. ​

​And the dropout rate for mature students at Buckinghamshire New University was​ ​higher – in 2017-18, 22.2 per cent of its 1,235 mature students left before the second year.

Nationally, the rate of young starters dropping out of higher education before the second year has risen from 6.5 per cent since 2016-17, and is at its highest rate for four years.

The Office for Students, the country's higher education watchdog, said the latest figures are "concerning."

OfS chief executive, Nicola Dandridge, said: “These figures show that the rate of both young and mature students choosing not to continue their studies has increased.

"Rates vary significantly between different higher education providers, and a number of providers will need to think seriously about what they can do to reduce these rates.

“Where we have concerns about performance at individual providers, we will continue to take action as necessary to ensure that students from all backgrounds are able to fully realise the many life-changing benefits of higher education.”

The University of Bedfordshire had the highest non-continuation rate of 18.3 per cent in 2017-18, while The University of Cambridge had the lowest, at one per cent.

The dropout rate for young entrants at Buckinghamshire New University in 2011-12, the year before the latest university tuition fee rise came into effect, was 8.4 per cent. Nationally, it was 5.7 per cent.

Universities Minister Michelle Donelan said: “With high numbers of students continuing to drop out, this data shows progress is slow from some institutions to tackle the issue. I want universities to step up and take action as we cannot let these students down and let talent go to waste.

“We are empowering students to make more informed choices when it comes to studying after the age of 16. This includes publishing more data than ever before on degree outcomes and teaching quality at universities.”

Professor Gavin Brooks, Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Bucks New University said: "The university regularly monitors continuation rates and works hard to support our students to succeed and reach their full potential.

"More than half of the university’s non-continuing mature students [195 out of 321] in 2017/18 were registered with a specific partner with whom we have ended our ongoing relationship and where we are now in a ‘teach-out’ phase.

"This adversely affected our overall non-continuation rate, and this influence will not be present in future years.

"Non-continuation for Bucks mature students taught at our campuses in 2017/8 was actually 9.2%.

"At Bucks, we track the eligibility of our students to progress to the next level of study because we care about each of them and their future success. 

"We are proud that the most recent data shows that since 2017 there has been a year-on-year increase in the proportion of students (across levels 4,5 & 6) who are eligible to progress to the next year of study. In 2018/9, 96.2% of our second-year students progressed to their final year.

"We offer those first year students who do not meet the required grades the opportunity to repeat if they have been making progress, and we do all we can to support them both academically and pastorally. 

"Everyone at our university is proud of how we support a very diverse range of people into higher education.

"A quarter of our students come from postcodes with low participation rates in higher education, and one-third from areas with higher levels of deprivation.

"We were delighted to rise ten places to rank 19th best for social inclusion, out of all universities in England and Wales, in the latest Good University Guide."