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Press Office

Simon Kemp - Press Officer

Welcome to HESA's Press Office

We aim to provide a swift responsive service to enquiries from members of the media regarding statistics on higher education in the UK. Our Press Officer is Simon Kemp.

Download our press pack for a summary of what we do and how we can help

Our data and analysis pages contain much of the free data and analysis we produce. Should you require something more detailed or are unable to find what you need please contact us:

E  [email protected]

T  +44 (0)1242 211120

@ukhesa on Twitter HESA on Linked In

View schedule of 2019 HESA data releases

Please note that official statistics are published at 09:30 and are not released under embargo.

New data for the 2017/18 academic year

Higher Education Student Statistics: UK, 2017/18

Headlines:

  • There were 2,343,095 students in higher education (HE) in 2017/18, an increase of 1% from 2016/17.
  • The number of students starting taught masters courses increased by 6% in 2017/18 to 230,950.
  • The number of students on first degree courses (e.g. BA/BSc) increased by 1%, but the number on other undergraduate courses fell by 8%.
  • The number of part-time students fell by 4% to below 500,000. Three-fifths of part-time students were aged 30 or over.
  • The number of first year students from EU countries (excluding the UK) fell by 1%.
  • The number of first year students from non-EU countries rose by 8%, with over two-fifths of these students coming from China.
  • A total of 777,005 HE qualifications were awarded in 2017/18, of which 54% were first degrees.
  • 28% of classified first degrees were awarded first class honours. The proportion of students achieving a first has increased by two percentage points each year for the last five years.

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