New analysis from Universities UK International (UUKi) reveals that UK transnational education (TNE) continues to thrive, reaching a record high of nearly 700,000 students studying for UK degrees overseas. This reinforces the UK’s position as a global partner of choice for delivering high-quality, trusted education worldwide.
With fewer than 3% of students worldwide internationally mobile, UK universities are successfully meeting global demand by delivering world-class UK higher education to students in their home countries.
Jamie Arrowsmith, Director of Universities UK International, said:
With TNE playing a vital role in widening global access to UK degrees, this report shows how our universities are at the forefront of this profound shift. As the landscape continues to evolve, we're committed to supporting our members in developing their provision, ensuring that growth in TNE remains strategic, sustainable, and rooted in partnership and mutual benefit.
Jamie Arrowsmith, Director, Universities UK International
To support institutions in delivering impactful and responsible TNE, UUKi continues to equip the sector with insights, guidance and peer networks. This includes UUKi’s TNE Network, launched in March 2026, which enables collaboration and shared solutions across the sector as global demand for TNE grows.
The report from UUKi comes on the same day that the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA, part of Jisc) publishes a new HE international dashboard. The interactive dashboard combines data about international students studying in the UK with data about TNE students around the world since 2012–13. The dashboard enables comparison of international student numbers and TNE provision by higher education (HE) provider and by country of origin.
Vikas Dhawan, Director of Data Insights and Solutions at HESA, said:
The HE international dashboard offers a versatile and interactive tool to examine the data for international students engaged with UK HE providers. It can support a wide range of users, including HE providers, policymakers, government departments and regulators, researchers and others interested in the global reach of UK higher education.
Vikas Dhawan, Director of Data Insights and Solutions, HESA
The full UUKi report, The scale of UK higher education transnational education 2024–25, is available now, providing comprehensive analysis including breakdowns by world regions and UK nations.
The HE international dashboard is available to explore on HESA’s website. HESA is part of Jisc which also offers consultancy, research, advice and guidance to UK providers of TNE.
Visit HESA's HE international dashboard
Universities UK International (UUKi) represents UK higher education institutions (HEIs) globally and helps them flourish internationally. To do this we actively promote UK HEIs abroad, provide trusted information for and about them, and create new opportunities through our unique ability to act at sector level. We draw on UK university expertise to influence policy in the UK and overseas, delivering information, advice and guidance to facilitate mutually beneficial collaboration between UK HEIs and a broad range of international partners.
HESA (Higher Education Statistics Agency) is part of Jisc. We are the experts in UK higher education data.
We collect, assure and disseminate data about higher education (HE) in the UK on behalf of our Statutory Customers. As the trusted source of HE data and analysis, we play a key role in supporting and enhancing the competitive strength of the sector.
We work with HE providers in each of the four nations, collaborating with them to collect and curate one of the world’s leading HE data sources. Using this knowledge and expertise we provide a rich, open source of HE information for data users.
