Top findings from the report can be seen below.Â
Overview Â
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156 higher education providers reported students studying through TNE, more than ever before. Â
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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. Â
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20 providers reported 59.8% of UK TNE students.Â
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453,390 students were studying on UK TNE programmes. Â
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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. Â
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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%). Â
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68.3% were studying at undergraduate level. The number of students studying at postgraduate level increased by 21.2% from 2015−16. Â
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83 providers reported more than 1,000 students in TNE, compared to 69 in 2015−16. Â
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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.Â
Insights by regionÂ
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UK TNE was reported in 225 countries and territories.Â
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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%).Â
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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. Â
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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%).Â
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Most students in overseas campuses are located in Asia (63.2% of the global total) and the Middle East (26.3%).Â
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. Â
The report can be downloaded here.
The press release can be viewed here.
Join UUKi on 3 and 4 November at our Transnational education conference 2021+ to discuss the findings.Â