Indian, Pakistani, Irish and Polish domicile student numbers fall in 2011/12
Data from the HESA Student record for 2011/12 shows that there were 2,496,645 students in higher education in the UK in 2011/12. Of these 2,061,410 (82.6%) were UK domicile students, 132,550 (5.3%) were from other EU member countries and 302,680 (12.1%) were from non-EU countries.
The table below shows the rate of change of student numbers by domicile. The total number of students fell by 0.2% from 2010/11 to 2011/12. However the number of non-UK domicile students rose by 1.6% and the overall decrease was entirely due to lower numbers of UK domiciled students.
Students at UK HE institutions by domicile 2010/11 and 2011/12
The majority (62%) of non-EU domiciled students in 2011/12 came from Asia. However the pattern of participation in UK HE varied significantly between countries. The number of Chinese domicile students at UK HE institutions (HEIs) continued to grow, while the number of Indian and Pakistan domicile students fell for the first time.
The map below shows, for countries with over 1,000 students at UK HEIs, those countries from which the number of students grew, and those for whom numbers fell, between 2010/11 and 2011/12. More details about student numbers from the top ten non-EU and top ten EU countries are given in the tables below.
Map source: Wikimedia Commons
Non-EU countries
Students from China and India still accounted for over 35% of all non-EU domicile students at UK HEIs in 2011/12. The table below shows the growth in numbers of students from the top ten non-EU countries of domicile from 2010/11 to 2011/12.
Top ten non-EU countries of domicile in 2011/12 for HE students in UK Higher Education Institutions
See Press Releases 172, 155 and 144 for previous years' data.
Other EU countries
The number of students from other EU countries also continued to rise between 2010/11 and 2011/12. The table below shows the growth in numbers of students from the top ten other EU countries of domicile in 2011/12. The numbers of students from Romania and Bulgaria each increased by over 20%, while the numbers of students from Ireland, Germany, France and Poland declined.
Top ten other EU countries of domicile in 2011/12 for HE students in UK Higher Education Institutions
Non-UK domicile students accounted for over a third of all postgraduate students at UK HEIs in 2011/12. Just under half of all non-UK domicile students were studying for postgraduate qualifications. The table below shows the number of students by domicile, level of study and mode of study in 2011/12.
Students by domicile, level of study and mode of study 2011/12
The Statistical First Release of data from the HESA Student Record was published on 10 January 2013.
The HESA publication Students in Higher Education Institutions 2011/12,including comprehensive data on student domicile, level and mode of study, subjects of study, qualifications obtained, offshore provision, and more will be published in February. Students in Higher Education Institutions 2011/12 can be pre-ordered from our website.
A schedule of HESA releases for 2013 can be found here.
In the above data and annex tables 0, 1, 2 are rounded to 0. All other numbers are rounded up or down to the nearest multiple of 5.
HESA student data is collected from all publicly funded Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK, plus the University of Buckingham, which is a non-publicly-funded institution. The 2011/12 data covers 163 HEIs (131 in England, 10 in Wales, 18 in Scotland and 4 in Northern Ireland).
HESA cannot accept responsibility for any inferences or conclusions derived from the data by third parties.
