There were approximately 18.58 million college students in the U.S. in 2022, with around 13.49 million enrolled in public colleges and a further 5.09 million students enrolled in private colleges. The figures are projected to remain relatively constant over the next few years.

What is the most expensive college in the U.S.? The overall number of higher education institutions in the U.S. totals around 4,000, and California is the state with the most. One important factor that students – and their parents – must consider before choosing a college is cost. With annual expenses totaling almost 78,000 U.S. dollars, Harvey Mudd College in California was the most expensive college for the 2021-2022 academic year. There are three major costs of college: tuition, room, and board. The difference in on-campus and off-campus accommodation costs is often negligible, but they can change greatly depending on the college town.

The differences between public and private colleges Public colleges, also called state colleges, are mostly funded by state governments. Private colleges, on the other hand, are not funded by the government but by private donors and endowments. Typically, private institutions are  much more expensive. Public colleges tend to offer different tuition fees for students based on whether they live in-state or out-of-state, while private colleges have the same tuition cost for every student.

This file contains information on the number of higher education students in the UK, broken down by sex, level of education, mode of study, subject group and domicile.

This bulletin is the annual first release of HESA student data. It draws upon data from the revised student data collection (delivered by the Data Futures programme) and marks the second year of reporting using the new data model. Once again, a comprehensive quality assessment has been undertaken on the dataset and this is detailed in our accompanying student data quality report. A detailed list of findings is available in the data quality and insights resource, which is also accompanied by provider specific data notes. The coverage of data is detailed in the notes section of this release. In summary, we cover data about higher education students and qualifiers from the following types of providers within the UK: -Higher education (HE) providers in England registered with the Office for Students (OfS) in the Approved (fee cap) or Approved categories; -Publicly funded HE providers in Northern Ireland and Scotland; and -Providers in Wales that are funded directly for higher education provision by Medr and providers in Wales that return data to HESA about specifically designated courses. This bulletin also includes information from the HESA Aggregate Offshore record which can be seen in Figure 12. This separate record counts students studying wholly outside the UK who are either registered with the reporting HE provider or who are studying for an award of the reporting HE provider.

In the academic year 2023/2024, of the over ******* higher education students in Portugal, ****** studied business sciences, administration, and law. With ****** students, engineering, manufacturing, and construction was the second-most chosen study field. While the engineering field dominated in Northern Portugal, the business one was the most relevant in Greater Lisbon.

This bulletin is the annual first release of HESA student data. It covers data about higher education students and qualifiers from the following types of providers within the UK: Higher education (HE) providers in England registered with the Office for Students (OfS) in the Approved (fee cap) or Approved categories; Publicly funded HE providers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; and Further education (FE) colleges in Wales. These providers submit data to HESA via either the Student record or the Student alternative record. This is the second year that data from both records have been combined together in the figures within this release to provide a more complete picture of higher education within the UK. Further details on coverage can be seen in the notes section of this release. For users wishing to undertake time-series analysis that make use of data drawn exclusively from the HESA Student record (and therefore comparable with the coverage of tables and charts published in previous issues of this bulletin) an option is provided to 'Download source data 051 record only (csv)' underneath each table and chart. Please note that this is the final year this option will be available. HESA do not intend to continue with the production of 051 record only source data. This bulletin also includes information from the HESA Aggregate offshore record and can be seen in figure 12. This separate record counts students studying wholly outside the UK who are either registered with the reporting HE provider or who are studying for an award of the reporting HE provider.

This bulletin is the annual first release of HESA student data. For the first time it draws upon data from the revised student data collection (delivered by the Data Futures programme). A comprehensive quality assessment has been undertaken on the dataset and this is detailed in our accompanying 2022/23 student data quality report. A detailed list of findings is available in the data quality and insights resource, which is also accompanied by provider specific data notes.

The coverage of data is detailed in the notes section of this release. In summary, we cover data about higher education students and qualifiers from the following types of providers within the UK:

Higher education (HE) providers in England registered with the Office for Students (OfS) in the Approved (fee cap) or Approved categories; Publicly funded HE providers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; and Further education (FE) colleges in Wales.

This bulletin also includes information from the HESA Aggregate Offshore record which can be seen in Figure 12. This separate record counts students studying wholly outside the UK who are either registered with the reporting HE provider or who are studying for an award of the reporting HE provider.

In Mexico, about four millions students were enrolled in a formal higher education program in the 2023/2024 academic year. The number of higher education students has been steadily increasing in the last decade, surpassing the threshold of three millions in the academic year 2011/2012, the four million threshold in 2019/2020.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency Student Data covers information on students, staff, graduates, finances, estates, and other populations from all aspects of the UK higher eduation sector.

In 2023/24 there were estimated to be over *** million students enrolled in higher education courses in the United Kingdom, compared with 2.94 million in 2022/23, the highest number of enrolled students during this provided time period. Although the number of students in the UK fell from *** million in 2011/12 to **** by 2014/15, this trend reversed in subsequent years, reaching the peak in the most recent year. Largest UK universities At ******* students, the mainly remote, Open University had the largest number of students enrolled among UK-based higher education institutions in 2022/23. University College London had the second-highest number of students at ******, followed by the University of Manchester at ******. At the UK's two oldest and most prestigious universities, Oxford and Cambridge, there were ******, and ****** students respectively. The university with the most students in Scotland was the University of Glasgow at *******students, with Wales' being Cardiff University at ****** students, and Northern Ireland's Ulster University having ****** students. Student Debt in the UK For students that graduated from English universities in 2024, the average student loan debt incurred over the course of their studies was over ****** British pounds. Although students graduated with less debt from universities in Wales, Northern Ireland, and especially Scotland, this too has been growing recently. In 2024, students from Scottish Universities graduated with an average of ****** pounds of debt, compared with ****** in Wales, and ****** in Northern Ireland. The overall outstanding student loan debt in the UK reached over *** billion pounds in 2023/24, with the vast majority of this debt from students who studied in England.

Last update: April 2013 Was added to StatsWales: April 2013 Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Contact: post16ed.stats@wales.gsi.gov.uk The information in this table is taken from Performance Indicators in Higher Education in the UK available on the HESA web-site at www.hesa.ac.uk/pi. A Guide to Performance Indicators in Higher Education is also available at this web-site. The indicators are designed to provide reliable information on the nature and performance of the higher education sector in the UK. The performance indicators broadly cover access to higher education, non-continuation rates and outcomes. Indicators relate to higher education institutions in the individual countries of the UK. The Performance Indicators Steering Group (PISG) has led the development of these indicators. Members are drawn from the four higher education funding bodies for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (HEFCE, SHEFC, HEFCW, DEL); the Department for Education and Skills and other government departments, the Higher Education Statistics Agency, and universities and colleges through their representative bodies (Universities UK and SCOP) Since 2002/03 HESA has published the Performance Indicators on behalf of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) who published them previously. A number of changes were introduced for the 2002/03 publication; further details can be found at www.hesa.ac.uk/pi . The access indicators relate to students starting in 2004/05; the indicators of non-continuation (students who do not continue after their first year) and of non-completion (students who drop out and do not resume later or transfer elsewhere) relate to the cohort starting in 2003/04. The disability indicator covers all students, not just entrants, on undergraduate programmes in 2004/05. WIDENING ACCESS: PERCENTAGE OF YOUNG FIRST DEGREE ENTRANTS FROM STATE SCHOOLS OR COLLEGES. School type is taken from previous institution attended. All schools or colleges that are not denoted ‘independent’ are assumed to be state schools. This means that students from sixth-form or further education colleges, for example, are included as being from state schools.

The Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) series was designed to provide comprehensive information on various aspects of postsecondary education in the United States and its territories (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Marshall Islands) and Department of Defense schools outside the United States. Data are available for both public and private two-year and four-year institutions. The HEGIS Fall Enrollment component for 1968 sought enrollment data from institutions of higher education. Key data elements, presented for up to five record types for each institution, include total enrollments of full-time and part-time students by class level, sex, race, and first-time enrollment status, as well as information on the institutions' type of accreditation, type of calendar system, and total number of students.

This Statistical First Release (SFR) has been produced by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in collaboration with statisticians from the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Welsh Government (WG), the Scottish Government (SG) and the Department for Employment and Learning Northern Ireland (DEL(NI)). It has been released according to the arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority. It provides details of student enrolments and qualifications obtained by higher education (HE) students at HE providers (HEPs) in the United Kingdom (UK) for the academic year 2013/14. From 2012/13 the HESA constituency includes all UK publicly funded higher education institutions (HEIs) and a number of alternative providers (APs), collectively referred to as higher education providers (HEPs). This SFR, as in previous years, contains information regarding only the HEI element of this constituency and the University of Buckingham and therefore uses the term ‘higher education providers (HEPs)’. This SFR also includes summary statistics about study at higher education level in further education colleges, and it therefore presents figures illustrating the totality of higher education provision in publicly-funded providers in the UK. This SFR also includes information from the HESA Aggregate offshore record. This record captures students studying wholly outside the UK who are either registered with the reporting HE provider or who are studying for an award of the reporting HE provider.

This data comes from the HEA's Student Record System (SRS). These are annual returns submitted to the HEA by each of the HEA-funded higher education institutions in Ireland. For further information, please visit www.hea.ie/statistics. .hidden { display: none }

Provides in-year estimates of higher education student numbers on recognised higher education courses.

Higher education student enrolments and qualifications obtained at alternative providers in the United Kingdom 2017/18.

This Statistical Bulletin provides details of student enrolments and qualifications obtained by students at alternative providers (AP) in the United Kingdom (UK) for the academic year 2017/18.

Earlier higher education student statistics bulletins are available on the HESA website.

Supplementary data referring to students at alternative providers will be published on 29 January 2020.

This Statistical First Release (SFR) has been produced by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in collaboration with Department for Education and Skills (DfES) statisticians. It provides details of student enrolments and qualifications obtained by higher education (HE) students at HE institutions (HEIs) in the United Kingdom (UK) for the academic year 2005/06.

Table 1 shows all student enrolments on HE courses by level of study, mode of study and domicile, 2001/02 to 2005/06.

Table 2 shows first year student enrolments on HE courses by level of study, mode of study and domicile, 2001/02 to 2005/06.

Table 3 shows student enrolments on HE courses by mode of study, level of study and subject area, 2002/03 to 2005/06.

Table 4 shows the qualifications obtained by students on HE courses at HEIs in the UK by mode of study, domicile, gender and level of qualification obtained, 2001/02 to 2005/06.

Table 5 shows the class of degree achieved by students obtaining first degree qualifications at HEIs in the UK by gender and mode of study, 2001/02 to 2005/06.

Table 6 shows the qualifications obtained by students on HE courses at HEIs in the UK by level of qualification obtained, gender and subject area, 2002/03 to 2005/06.

Estimates of suicides among higher education students by sex, age group, ethnicity, type of study, and student term time accommodation between the academic years ending 2017 and 2023. Based on mortality records linked to Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) student records. These are official statistics in development.