Students in higher education institutions: September 2016 to August 2017

Higher education enrolments by students from Wales

• In 2016/17, the number of students from Wales enrolled in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) continued its seven year decline, falling to 97,095.
• The fall came from a decrease in the number of part-time students, who dropped by 2,050 (6%) in 2016/17.
• For every 10 males enrolled at a university, there were 14 females.
• The most popular subject group was Subjects Allied to Medicine, with nursing enrolments comprising most of these.

Higher education enrolments in Wales

• Enrollments at Welsh universities declined slightly for a fifth year, to 128,005 in 2016/17.
• The drop was due in part to a fall in the number of students from Wales studying part-time which decreased by 2,085 (7%).
• Full-time undergraduates increased again to the highest number on record, at 79,780.
• Almost half of postgraduates studied part-time, compared to nearly a quarter of undergraduates.
• Over half of students at Welsh universities came from Wales before they began study.
• The most popular subject group at Welsh universities in 2016/17 was Biological Sciences, closely followed by Business & Administrative Studies.

Cross border flows of full-time students

• Wales is a net importer of full-time students from the UK. In 2016/17 Wales accepted 9,350 more students from other UK countries than it sent to them.
• There were 35,390 students from other UK countries at Welsh universities, compared to 26,040 students from Wales studying at HEIs in the rest of the UK.
• Two fifths of undergraduates from Wales studied in England, as did just over one third of postgraduates from Wales.

Higher education qualifications

• The number of qualifications awarded to students from Wales increased to 28,025 in 2016/17.
• Just over three quarters of qualifications awarded to students from Wales were undergraduate.
• The number of qualifications awarded by universities in Wales remained fairly constant in 2016/17, at 40,370.

Note

Numbers of students on Higher Education courses at Welsh Further Education Institutions are available from 2016/17 onwards. They are not included in the analysis below as there is no historic data to compare with; however the data can be viewed using the Coverage marker in the related StatsWales tables.