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Higher Education Trends published in the THES this week is our third annual statistical publication. It includes the final year of figures collected separately for the old universities and for the former polytechnics and colleges. This year for the first time, however, there are also figures collected on a standard basis from the whole of the unified higher education system.

The data now accumulating at the Higher Education Statistics Agency, an agency set up by the universities, beyond the reach of political manipulation, will provide an invaluable resource - and an answer to those who claim that higher education is insufficiently accountable.

Establishing the agency and its associated electronic data collection system is a considerable achievement. It means higher education will be one of the most comprehensively and accessibly documented areas of public life. The THES looks forward to working with HESA to provide basic figures and to highlight particular trends.