Universities UK, the representative organisation for the United Kingdom’s universities, published a report this week which looks at “Patterns and trends in UK higher education” over the last decade (2000-2010).
The report looks at trends during a time of significant expansion and change in the UK, tracking the rise of student numbers, the changing popularity of different subject areas, and a notable shift in the funding regime. According to the report, the UK higher education institutions together educate some 2.5 million students annually. The last 10 years has seen significant expansion, with a 28 per cent increase in student numbers from all over the world. Since 2000/1, the number of non-EU students has more than doubled, with an increase of 11.7 per cent in the last year. Since 2000/1, full-time postgraduate numbers have increased by 73.1 per cent compared with an increase of 28.5 per cent for full-time undergraduates over the same period. This is partly due to the rate of increase in non-UK students, who tend to study at postgraduate level. Dowload the report Patterns and Trends in UK Higher Education.
Patterns and trends in UK higher education
This report – Patterns and trends in UK higher education – builds on the time series data produced
annually since 2001 under the title Patterns of higher education institutions in the UK. It offers a unique
overview of provision at publicly-funded higher education institutions in the UK. All charts and tables in
the report are now also available to download from the Universities UK website.
Section A shows sector-level trends over the last 10 years from 2000/01 to 2009/10. For the first time,
this offers a true time series provided by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), accounting for
changes to the way student numbers are counted.
Section B looks at patterns of institutional diversity covering students, staff and finance.
The report provides a very helpful insight into high-level trends during a decade of significant expansion
and change. Among other things, the report tracks the rise of student numbers, the changing popularity
of different subject areas, and a notable shift in the funding regime. It also demonstrates how higher
education institutions continue to make a large contribution to civil society and the economy in the UK.
The higher education student population
UK higher education institutions together educate some 2.5 million students annually, including over 400,000 from outside the UK, making the higher education sector one of the most important export earners for the UK economy. The last 10 years has seen significant expansion, with a 28 per cent increase in student numbers from all domiciles.
As in previous years female students studying higher education at UK higher education institutions remain in the majority, accounting for 56.6 per cent of all students in 2009/10. This pattern is also present for all levels and modes of study other than full-time postgraduate provision, where males account for the majority of students since 2008/09.
How are students choosing to study?
Since 2000/01, full-time postgraduate numbers have increased by 73.1 per cent compared with an increase of 28.5 per cent for full-time undergraduates over the same period. This is partly due to the rate of increase in non-UK students, who tend to study at postgraduate level. For all UK countries other than Scotland, growth in full-time undergraduate provision was higher than that seen for part-time undergraduate provision between 2000/01 and 2009/10.
The last year has seen minor changes in the distribution of students amongst institutions. There have been slight decreases in the proportion of other undergraduate, part-time and mature full-time students across the range of institutions compared to 2008/09, despite increases in the absolute number of students in most of these groups. Part of this trend could be due to the greater increase in non-UK students, who tend to be younger and study full-time and postgraduate-level courses.
EU and international students
One of the main trends over the last 10 years has been the success of UK higher education institutions in attracting international students. Since 2000/01, the number of non-EU students has more than doubled, with an increase of 11.7 per cent in the last year. Although this is approximately four times the equivalent increase in UK-domiciled students it should be noted that the UK’s share of the international student market has reduced over this period, with other countries becoming more competitive in attracting these students. This trend does not include the impact of recent changes to non-EU student visas, which may result in a greater loss of market share in the future.
China (excluding Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao) continues to provide the highest numbers of international students on first degree, postgraduate research and other undergraduate courses and the second highest numbers on postgraduate taught courses. India provided the highest numbers on postgraduate taught courses. Although overall numbers have increased, there were no significant changes in the top 20 countries across levels from the previous year. The concentration of non-EU students across institutions remains at a similar level to last year, with recent increases in the number of EU students concentrated mostly in those institutions with smaller numbers of these students.
What are students studying?
Between 2003/04 and 2009/10 student numbers increased by 13.3 per cent across all subjects. There have, however, been significant changes in the relative popularity of different subject areas. Over the period, large increases are seen in students studying clinical and biological sciences, mathematics, physical sciences, and architecture, building and planning. The only subjects to see decreases in the absolute number of students between 2003/04 and 2009/10 are computer science and historical and philosophical studies. Both, however, show increases in the last year.
Employment of graduates
Employment rates six months after graduation remain high across the sector, with 80 per cent of institutions showing between 86 per cent and 94 per cent of their students recorded as in employment or further study six months after graduation. The impact of the recession is evident, however, with small decreases across the sector in the proportion of students in employment or further study over the last year. It should be noted that recent analysis by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Office for National Statistics demonstrates that graduates have been less impacted by the effects of the recession than those with lower qualifications.
Trends in income
In 2009/10 higher education institutions had a combined turnover of £26.8 billion. Tuition fees and
education contracts accounted for 31 per cent of total income, compared to 23 per cent in 2000/01.
Between 2008/09 and 2009/10, income from research grants and contracts rose 4.6 per cent, to £4.3
million. 142 institutions posted a surplus in 2009/10.
The level of long-term borrowing compared to total income varied significantly across the sector, ranging from a lower decile of 0 per cent to an upper decile of 44 per cent. Four institutions showed levels of long-term borrowing above 70 per cent of total income in 2009/10. In line with trends in recent years, the level of income from funding body grants has decreased across institutions since 2008/09 at similar rates for those institutions with high and low proportions of income from this source.
The impact of the recession is evident in a number of indicators, most clearly in the 38.6 per cent decrease in endowment and investment income over the last year. The recession has also contributed to a large decrease in the ratio of research income from research grants and contracts (including funding from research councils) to funding body research grants over the last year. This is evident across the sector, demonstrating the importance of QR funding in the current economic climate. These are just a few of the many interesting observations to be found in Patterns and trends in UK higher education, which contains a great deal of rich and informative material. Readers will, I am sure, find much to interest them beyond these brief highlights.
Professor Paul O’Prey, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Roehampton and Chair, Universities UK Longer Term Strategy Network, October 2011.

By Jan Petter Myklebust. Sweden's coalition government is to tackle a sharp drop in student numbers by allocating more funding to universities where there is a strong demand for places, forcing less popular institutions to seek mergers to survive, Education Minister Jan Björklund has warned.
In an article in the leading newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Björklund said that "demography is now on our side for promoting university mergers", given an expected 25% drop in the 20-year-old age cohort over the next six years.
"We intend to make student choices of universities an important factor in the channeling of resources, so that those universities with a high demand for study places will receive more funding compared to those institutions that experience less such demand," he said.
Institutions less in demand would face many challenges, he warned, adding that it was in their interest to seek mergers with larger, research-intensive universities, or with research institutes, to secure their resource base. But university leaders and higher education experts have warned against making a simplistic assumption that large institutions are better than small ones. Björklund's article followed the minister's keynote speech at the annual meeting of the Association of Swedish Higher Education, titled "Quality Before Quantity".
In an unprecedented move, the ministry sent a text message to all university college rectors urging them to read the article, titled "University Colleges Need to Merge with Stronger Universities".
Björklund said initiatives for mergers should come from institutions themselves. The government did not intend to take decisions on mergers, but was convinced they would improve quality and strengthen the position of Swedish universities internationally.
"Institutions are facing major challenges that will change the higher education landscape in Sweden," he said.
To facilitate the process, the government has allocated SEK20 million (US$2.6 million) for 2012 and SEK75 million for 2013 to cover the costs of preparing university mergers.
The minister said the government would want to retain higher education opportunities across the country, but these would primarily be in professional training like nursing, teaching or engineering. Currently there are 37 higher education institutions in Sweden, catering for 440,000 students, a figure that has doubled in the past 20 years. Resources for research are concentrated in 10 institutions. Björklund said many higher education courses did not have a satisfactory link to research and the goal was that most university professors should have a doctorate and participate actively in research.
"The coalition government now wants to focus on quality, and the first steps were taken [last year] when we instructed the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education to examine all university courses over the next three years and to grade all courses according to a set of quality criteria," he said.
That instruction, which ensured evaluations would be based solely on student results, led to the resignation of Sweden's University Chancellor Anders Flodström, as reported by University World News. Thomas Blom, acting rector of Karlstad University, which is close to the border with Norway, and Åsa Bergenheim, the incoming rector, said in a joint statement to University World News that while closer cooperation and fusion might be appropriate for some universities it was vital for such a process to take place in a climate of mutual respect.
"The evaluations from the Swedish National Agency for Higher education demonstrate that larger institutions are not always better than smaller ones," they said.
They added that mergers could enable institutions to share each other's experiences, competence and ideas. "If we manage to do this right, a merger could strengthen teaching and research milieus, relations to the regional society could be broadened and administrative costs could be reduced. And for students a university with several campuses could be of interest, giving more study choices," they said.
"The point, however, is not to become big - but that we shall be good."
Kerstin Norén, rector of Högskolan Vest (University College West) in Trollhättan, told local newspaper TTELA that the minister's article was retelling old myths, such as that university colleges were the weak link in the higher education landscape, when the real problem might be that resourcing was weak.
"Most important to reach high scientific quality are international contacts. The size of the research institution is of less importance," Norén said.
Kåre Bremer, rector of Stockholm University, reminded readers of his blog that Björklund had often said that seven to 10 Swedish university colleges might have to be closed down unless they merged with a stronger research institution.
"Now several discussions are taking place on potential mergers, most of them still more or less informal. Stockholm University is not involved yet in any such discussions," he said.
Lena Adamson, former secretary-general of the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education and now an expert on quality assurance, teaching and learning and entrepreneurship at the European Institute of Technology, told University World News that concentration and good use of resources was important in any business. But while she agreed with Björklund on the importance of having a "sharp" national quality assurance system, this objective was not being realised.
"Clear quality profiles instead of extensive peer review reports will steer students' choices more effectively than anything else. This will act as an economic driving force for higher education institutions to find their own solutions in improving quality and making good use of their resources," Adamson said.
"When it comes to small institutions collaborating with larger ones, we must not forget that the correlation between size of institution and intense creation of innovations - in the sense of putting good research to use - is not always given. Concentration and good use of resources, yes. But size may not always be the sole dimension to take into consideration here."