Recruitment to part-time degree courses is booming in Welsh higher education but institutions are struggling to attract part-time and full-time postgraduate researchers, funding council figures show.

Over the past ten years, enrolment on part-time undergraduate courses in Wales has more than doubled to over 18,000, while enrolment on part-time postgraduate taught programmes rose from about 2,600 to 6,500.

Over the same period, 1992-93 to 2001-02, the rise in full-time enrolments has been less dramatic. For full-time and sandwich undergraduate courses, numbers increased f`rom about 38,000 to 50,000, with most of the growth taking place in the first five years.

Enrolment to full-time postgraduate taught courses rose from 2,800 to about 4,250, with the biggest rises again in the first five years. In marked contrast, enrolments to full and part-time postgraduate research programmes barely grew over ten years. In the case of full-time courses, enrolments have risen from 1,100 in 1992-93 to about 1,400 in 2001-02.

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Numbers fell in the past two years. Recruitment of part-time postgraduate researchers has barely increased from its 1992-93 starting point of 700, with numbers falling in the past three years.

The figures follow a warning issued last month by researchers that Wales had become the poorest region in the UK for research and development. They blamed this on underinvestment and weak policy planning.

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The data also show changes in the volume of research activity in Welsh institutions compared with the 1996 research assessment exercise. The figures show a 10 per cent rise in the number of research-active staff entered in the RAE but a 48 per cent fall in the number of research fellows.

• The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales has pledged £2 million to create four widening participation partnership groups of universities and colleges.