The scale of UK higher education transnational education 2019-20

Top findings from the report can be seen below. 

Overview  

• 156 higher education providers reported students studying through TNE, more than ever before.  

• 82.9% of all UK higher education providers in the HESA student record delivered TNE degree programmes, and 17.9% of providers in the HESA Alternative Provider student record delivered TNE degree programmes.  

• 20 providers reported 59.8% of UK TNE students. 

• 453,390 students were studying on UK TNE programmes.  

• The total number of reported UK TNE student numbers decreased by 213,425 students (–32.0%)  from 2018−19 largely due to changes in reporting by one provider.  

• 39.1% of students were studying through collaborative provision, followed by distance, flexible or distributed learning (31.2%), registered at an overseas partner organisation (21.7%), and overseas  campus (6.9%). Distance, flexible or distributed learning experienced the greatest proportional growth from 2018−19 (17.5%).  

• 68.3% were studying at undergraduate level. The number of students studying at postgraduate level increased by 21.2% from 2015−16.  

• 83 providers reported more than 1,000 students in TNE, compared to 69 in 2015−16.  

• New headcount categories collected by HESA from providers in England and Wales show that in 2019–20, only 6.2% of students were dormant and only 4.0% of students withdrew from their course, while 67.6% of students were continuing study and 22.2% of students successfully completed their course. 

Insights by region 

• UK TNE was reported in 225 countries and territories. 

• Overall, Asia hosted 50.3% of students, followed by the European Union (16.5%), the Middle East (13.1%), Africa (10.7%), North America (5.1%), non-EU Europe (3.2%), Australasia (0.6%) and  South America (0.6%). 

• In 2019−20 China was the country hosting the most TNE students (49,800, 11.0%), followed by Malaysia (49,375, 10.9%), Sri Lanka (30,825, 6.8%), Singapore (27,885, 6.2%) and Hong Kong (22,400, 5.0%). Together, the top five host territories accounted for 39.9% of all students.  

• Students registered with an overseas partner organisation are prevalent in the Middle East (41.8% of the regional total) and Asia (31.4%), while distance, flexible or distributed learning is the main type of delivery in Australasia (98.8%), South America (82.6%) and North America (81.2%). 

• Most students in overseas campuses are located in Asia (63.2% of the global total) and the Middle East (26.3%). 

The analysis in this report is based on the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Aggregate Offshore Record (AOR), a dataset of students studying wholly outside the UK while registered at UK higher education providers (HEPs) or registered on their programmes.  

You can download the report.

You can find the press release.