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International student recruitment data
Last updated on Tuesday 14 Sep 2021 on 11:58am
All the numbers you need, in one place.
This page includes the most up-to-date figures on:
- new enrolments from international students
- student visa applications
- applications from international students made through UCAS
- where students worldwide are interested in studying
- regional and country breakdowns of where and what students are studying, or want to study
Including data from HESA, UCAS, the Home Office, ONS, IDP Connect and Study Portals. This data is updated on a quarterly basis.
With thanks to IDP Connect and Study Portals for providing exclusive access to their insights data.
Key facts:
- In 2019/20 there were 538,615 international students studying in the UK. 142,985 of these were from the EU and 395,630 were non-EU.
- In the year ending September 2020 there were 176,101 Sponsored study (Tier 4) visas granted (including dependents). This is a 36% decrease from the same point in 2019.
Global data
How many international students are there in the UK and where do they come from?
How is the number of new enrolments from each sending country changing year on year?
How many students applied for a study visa in recent years and where do they come from?
How many international students applied to study in the UK through UCAS?
How many international students are there in the UK and where do they come from?
In 2019/20 there were 538,615 international students studying in the UK. 142,985 of these were from the EU and 395,630 were non-EU.
Chinese students make up the largest cohort with 139,130 studying in the UK in 2019/20. China is followed by 52,545 students from India and 19,940 from the USA. Italian and French students are the two largest cohorts from the EU with 13,605 and 13,430 students respectively studying in the UK in 2019/20.
In 2019/20 the total number of non-EU students grew by 15.5% whilst EU student number decreased by 0.03%.
In the EU, there was a notable decline from top senders such as France, Germany, Greece and Ireland since well before the 2016 EU referendum. There was a particular drop in growth between 2011 and 2012, which could have been triggered by the rise in tuition fees for undergraduates from £3,000 a year to £9,000.
Internationally, growth has largely been driven by the consistent rise in the number of new enrolments from China, although even here there was a small plateau in growth between 2011 and 2014. With the notable exception of the US and Singapore, most other major sending countries have seen a decline in growth before the Covid-19 pandemic. India has seen recovery in the number of enrolments to the UK in recent years, with significant growth of 35% in 2018/19 and 97% in 2019/20.
According to HESA total enrolment figures for the top 10 sending countries to the UK in 2019/20 were:
- China (139,130)
- India (52,545)
- United States (19,940)
- Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China) (15,975)
- Italy (13,605)
- France (13,430)
- Malaysia (13,175)
- Nigeria (12,810)
- Germany (12,400)
- Spain (10,850)
How is the number of new enrolments from each sending country changing year on year?
According to HESA the number of new enrolments for the top 10 sending countries to the UK in 2019/20 were:
- China (101,855)
- India (39,360)
- United States (11,255)
- Nigeria (7,440)
- Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China) (6,700)
- France (6,330)
- Germany (6,155)
- Malaysia (5,810)
- Italy (5,695)
- Spain (4,810)
First year enrolments:
In 2019/20, the number of international students (EU and non-EU) enrolling for the first year of an undergraduate degree grew by 10.3%, to 122,845. This growth was driven by the number of non-EU first-year undergraduates (up 15.8%) while the number of EU first-year undergraduates decreased by 0.9% compared to last year.
In 2019/20, the number of first-year international postgraduates saw a 18.5% growth on 2018/19, totalling 184,920. Similarly to first-year undergraduate students, this reflected a rise in first-year non-EU postgraduate students (up 23.6%) and a slight decline in first-year EU postgraduate students (down 5.7%).
Postgraduate taught (PGT) vs postgraduate research (PGR), total enrolments:
When data is broken down into PGT and PGR students, it becomes clear that growth in non-UK postgraduate enrolments is driven by non-EU PGT students (up 25.1% on 2018/19), while non-EU PGR enrolments only saw an increase of 0.1% and trends for EU PGT/PGR enrolments was negative (down 3.5%/6.9%, respectively on previous year).
Postgraduate taught (PGT) vs postgraduate research (PGR), first enrolments:
First-year PGT enrolments increased for non-EU students (up 26.4% on 2018/19) and slightly dropped for EU students (down 4.0%). Non-EU first-year PGR enrolment also saw a downward trend (down 5.9% on 2018/19), while the EU counterpart saw a drop (down 14.8% on previous year in first-year PGR students).
The map below shows the number of first year enrolments from each country in the world in the selected academic year, you can also break down this data by level of study. If you hover over a country, you will see the change in total first year enrolments from that country over the period of 2007/08 to 2017/18 for the selected level of study.
How many students applied for a study visa in recent years, and where do they come from?
The latest visa figures for the year to September 2020 show:
- The higher education sector accounted for 86% of all sponsored visa applications.
- Grants of Tier 4 visas had previously been at the highest level since 2011, however, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a fall since the year ending June 2020.
- Chinese nationals were the most common nationality granted Tier 4 visas in the year ending September 2020, accounting for 30% of the total. However, the number of grants to Chinese nationals in the year ending September 2020 was less than half of that in the same period in 2019, falling 56% to 52,968.
- Indian nationals saw a notable increase in the number of Tier 4 visas granted, up 48% to 44,992 and continuing an increase seen since 2016.
According to visa statistics the Tier 4 visa numbers for top 5 non-EU sending countries to the UK in the year ending September 2020 were:
- China (52,698)
- India (44,992)
- United States (8,638)
- Nigeria (8,229)
- Hong Kong (7,866)