Top findings from the report can be seen below.ย 

Overviewย ย 

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

  • 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.ย ย 

  • 20 providers reported 59.8% of UK TNE students.ย 

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

  • The total number of reported UK TNE student numbers decreased by 213,425 students (โ€“32.0%)ย  fromย 2018โˆ’19 largely due to changes in reporting by one provider.ย ย 

  • 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%), andย overseasย  campusย (6.9%). Distance, flexible or distributed learning experienced the greatest proportional growth from 2018โˆ’19 (17.5%).ย ย 

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

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

  • New headcount categories collected by HESA from providers in England and Wales show that in 2019โ€“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.ย 

Insights by regionย 

  • UK TNE was reported in 225 countries and territories.ย 

  • 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%)ย andย  Southย America (0.6%).ย 

  • In 2019โˆ’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 topย fiveย host territories accounted for 39.9% of all students.ย ย 

  • 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%).ย 

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

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.ย ย 

The report can be downloaded here.

The press release can be viewedย here.

Join UUKi on 3 and 4 November at ourย Transnational education conference 2021+ย to discuss the findings.ย 

Source