The scale of UK higher education transnational education 2018-19

Notable findings of the report include: 

• 142 higher education providers reported students studying through TNE, more than ever before.
• 85.5% of all UK higher education providers delivered TNE degree programmes. 20 providers reported 75.5% of UK TNE students.
• 666,815 students were studying on UK TNE programmes, which was 1.4 times the number of international students in the UK in the same year.
• UK TNE student numbers decreased by 26,875 students (–3.9%) from 2017–18.
• 52.1% of students were registered at an overseas partner organisation, followed by collaborative provision (24.7%), distance, flexible and distributed learning (18.1%) and overseas campus (4.3%). Students studying through collaborative provision experienced the greatest proportional growth from 2017–18 (10.9%).
• 80.9% were studying at undergraduate level. The number of students studying at postgraduate level increased by 7.4% from 2014–15.
• Three providers of distance, flexible and blended TNE together make up 49.6% of the total number of TNE students.
• Excluding these providers:
• 336,375 students were studying UK TNE programmes in 2018–19, an increase of 4,250 (1.3%) over the previous year. Student numbers grew by 33,620 (11.1%) from 2014–15.
• 75 providers (54.0%) reported more than 1,000 students in TNE, compared to 66 (50.3%) in 2014–15.
• 48.5% of students were studying through collaborative provision, followed by distance, flexible and distributed learning (21.3%), registered at an overseas partner organisation (19.9%) and at an overseas campus (8.6%).
• Students studying through collaborative provision experienced the greatest proportional growth from 2017–18 (11.0%).
• 65.5% were studying at undergraduate level. The number of students studying at postgraduate level increased by 10.3% from 2014–15.
   

You can download the report.