In 2022, Canada had the highest share of adults with a university degree, at over 60 percent of those between the ages of 25 and 64. India had the smallest share of people with a university degree, at 13 percent of the adult population. University around the world Deciding which university to attend can be a difficult decision for some and in today’s world, people are not left wanting for choice. There are thousands of universities around the world, with the highest number found in India and Indonesia. When picking which school to attend, some look to university rankings, where Harvard University in the United States consistently comes in on top. Moving on up One of the major perks of attending university is that it enables people to move up in the world. Getting a good education is generally seen as a giant step along the path to success and opens up doors for future employment. Future earnings potential can be determined by which university one attends, whether by the prestige of the university or the connections that have been made there. For instance, graduates from the Stanford Graduate School of Business can expect to earn around 250,000 U.S. dollars annually.
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Students from the Chinese ethnic group had the highest entry rate into higher education in every year from 2006 to 2024.
******* was the European country with the highest share of graduates in 2024, with almost **** of those aged between 15 and 64 having a degree. On the contrary, only ** percent of the population aged 15 to 64 in ********************** hold a tertiary education title.
This statistic shows the amount of graduates in the United Kingdom (UK) as a percentage of the population from first quarter of 2010 to second quarter of 2013. The current figure for second quarter of 2013 is the highest of the entire period.
These statistics on student enrolments and qualifications obtained by higher education (HE) students at HE providers in the UK are produced by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). Information is available for:
Earlier higher education student statistics bulletins are available on the https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/statistical-first-releases?date_filter%5Bvalue%5D%5Byear%5D=&topic%5B%5D=4" class="govuk-link">HESA website.
Ireland and Luxembourg were the European countries with the highest share of graduates aged 30 to 34 in 2024, with two thirds of people in this age group having a degree. Countries such as Italy, Bosnia, and Romania had the lowest share of graduates in this age group at 30.7, 28.2, and 23.6 percent respectively.
Prospective full-time undergraduate students apply to Higher Education (HE) through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) prior to the start of the academic year. UCAS publishes statistics on the number of applicants to full-time undergraduate courses, as well as the number of applicants who have been accepted. UCAS figures provide the first indication of trends in HE student numbers in a given academic year. Data is available from 1996/7 academic year of entry and covers the whole UK. The latest statistics can be found in the http://www.ucas.com/about_us/media_enquiries/media_releases" class="govuk-link">Media Release section of the UCAS website.
UCAS does not cover part-time undergraduate students, nor those who apply directly to institutions; application data on such students is not held centrally. Furthermore, some accepted applicants to HE choose not to take up their place, or may decide to defer their studies. Therefore in any given academic year, the UCAS accepted applicants group is not equivalent to the actual HE entrant population.
UCAS has facilitated some postgraduate applications via UKPASS (UK Postgraduate Application and Statistical Service) since 2007, and UCAS also handles applications to postgraduate teacher training courses. However many postgraduate students continue to apply directly to institutions so comprehensive information on all postgraduate applications is not held centrally. Further information about UKPASS is available at the http://www.ukpass.ac.uk/aboutus" class="govuk-link">UKPASS website.
When a prospective student applies for a place on a HE course, they can apply for financial support through the Student Loans Company (SLC). Information on the financial support available to HE students in England is available on the http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/UniversityAndHigherEducation/StudentFinance/index.htm" class="govuk-link">DirectGov website.
Each year, Student Finance England (SLC’s England operations) publishes Official Statistics on student finance applications and payment processing at intervals between the first application deadline (31 May) up to the start of university term-time (around October). These statistics have been published since the 2009/10 academic year, in response to increased levels of public interest in SLC’s progress with support payments, and cover England. Links to these statistics can be found on the http://www.bis.gov.uk/analysis/statistics/higher-education/official-statistics-releases/student-support-applications" class="govuk-link">Student Support Applications page.
The SLC annually publishes National Statistics on Student Support Awards (loan rates, loan take-up, grants awarded etc) in November. This release has been published since the 2004/05 academic year for England. A link to these statistics can be found on the http://www.bis.gov.uk/analysis/statistics/higher-education/national-statistics-releases/student-support-for-higher-education" class="govuk-link">Student Support page.
SLC also publishes equivalent National Statistics on http://www.slc.co.uk/statistics/official-statistics-archive.aspx" class="govuk-link">Student Support Awards for Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) collects and publishes information on students in the current academic year, from the Higher Education Students Early Statistics (HESES) and Higher Education in Further Education: Students Survey (HEIFES). These are the first
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In the 10 years to July 2024, the percentage of further education students who were from Asian, Black, Mixed and Other ethnic backgrounds went up from 19.7% to 27.9%.
In 2024, 44 percent of people in the European Union aged between 25 and 34 had a degree. For the population aged between 20 and 24 as a whole, the figure was 19.4 percent.
In 2022/23 there were estimated to be over **** million students enrolled in higher education courses in the United Kingdom, which was 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.
In the 2022/23 academic year, 30 percent of undergraduates obtaining their degree were awarded a degree with first-class honors, the highest possible grade for UK graduates. Almost half of all students achieved an upper second or 2.1, with 20 percent obtaining a lower second or 2.2, and just four percent of graduates obtained a third, the lowest possible pass grade. The share of UK students graduating with a first-class degree has increased significantly in this time period, while the share of students obtaining a 2.2 has fallen the most in the same time period. GCSE and A-Level grades also on the rise Higher grades for the UK's main qualification for high school students, the general certificate of secondary education (GCSE), have also increased recently. In 1988 for example, approximately 8.4 percent of GCSE entries received the highest grade, compared with 21.8 percent in 2024. This is also the case to a lesser-extent for advanced level GCSE results (A-Levels), with the share of entries being awarded an A or A* increasing from 17.8 percent in 2000 to 27.8 percent in 2024. There is no consensus on if these improvements are due to increased ability, or to grade inflation. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, grades in the UK were a lot higher than in other years. This was due to teacher and tutor assessments being giving a higher weighting than normal, with exams being postponed or cancelled completely. The UK's top universities Britain's oldest and most famous universities, Cambridge and Oxford, remained the two highest-ranked universities in the UK in 2025, with the London School of Economics finishing third. According to the ranking, the University of St Andrews was the top university outside the south of England, with Durham University being the highest-ranked university in the north of England. The largest university in terms of enrolled students was the mainly remote focused Open University, which had over 140,000 students in 2022/23. Among universities that mainly taught on-campus, University College London had the most students enrolled, at almost 52,000.
Last update: Apr 2015 Next update: Sep 2015 (Provisional) Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Record. Contact: Post16Ed.stats@wales.gsi.gov.uk This data provides information on students taught through the medium of Welsh at Higher Education Institutions in Wales. The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collect data on students, staff and resources of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK. The data presented in this table is taken from HESA's Student Record which contains information on all students enrolled on credit bearing courses at UK HEIs. Further information about HESA and their data collections can be found on their website www.hesa.ac.uk This table is based on the HESA standard registration population is a count of all enrolments within the reporting year 1 August to 31 July. Students who leave within 2 weeks of their start date, or anniversary of their start date, and are on a course of more than two weeks duration, are not included in the standard registration population. Dormant students, incoming visiting and exchange students from overseas and students studying for the whole of their programme of study outside of the UK are also excluded from this population. Students who are on sabbatical and students who are writing-up are also excluded from this population. Postdoctoral students are not included in the HESA Student Record. Students being taught through the medium of Welsh are defined as students studying at least one module with a non-zero proportion of teaching through the medium of Welsh. See dimension notes for more detail. For each module the full-time equivalent of the module as a whole is recorded along with the proportion of the module taught through the medium of Welsh.The proportion of the module allocated to each subject (up to a maximum of four) is also recorded and as such the table shows the proportion of an instance years full-time study for the qualification aim that the module represents.
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Dataset used in 'State transitions in the statistically stable place cell population are determined by rate of perceptual change' by Tanni, de Cothi & Barry (2022). Dataset includes single-unit recordings of CA1 hippocampus from 5 rats in 4 different sized environments. Data is .nwb format
In 2022/23, the Open University, which focuses on remote learning, had approximately ******* students enrolled on courses, the highest in the UK during that academic year. After the Open University, University College London had the highest number of students in the UK, at ******, while the University of Manchester had the second-highest, at ******. The UK's oldest university, The University of Oxford, had approximately ****** students studying there.
The data shows that with increasing higher education, the share of the population that currently smoked decreased. As of 2022, the share of the population in the UK that had a degree and currently smoked was *** percent. The share of the population that had no qualifications and currently smoked, on the other hand, was approximately ** percent.
In the academic year 2023/24, there were 331,602 international students from India studying in the United States. International students The majority of international students studying in the United States are originally from India and China, totaling 331,602 students and 277,398 students respectively in the 2023/24 school year. In 2022/23, there were 467,027 international graduate students , which accounted for over one third of the international students in the country. Typically, engineering and math & computer science programs were among the most common fields of study for these students. The United States is home to many world-renowned schools, most notably, the Ivy League Colleges which provide education that is sought after by both foreign and local students. International students and college Foreign students in the United States pay some of the highest fees in the United States, with an average of 24,914 U.S. dollars. American students attending a college in New England paid an average of 14,900 U.S. dollars for tuition alone and there were about 79,751 international students in Massachusetts . Among high-income families, U.S. students paid an average of 34,700 U.S. dollars for college, whereas the average for all U.S. families reached only 28,026 U.S. dollars. Typically, 40 percent of families paid for college tuition through parent income and savings, while 29 percent relied on grants and scholarships.
In the winter semester 2024/25, around 2.87 million students were enrolled in German universities. This was a slight decrease compared to the previous year, but still around 250,000 more than ten years ago, demonstrating that higher education is becoming a more popular option for people in Germany. Students at German universities The majority of students in Germany are studying to get a bachelor’s degree, however, a significant growing number of students also go on to do a master’s degree. German universities offer students the opportunity to study a wide range of subjects - humanities as well as sciences. The most popular subjects to study among German students in recent years have been law, economics, and social sciences, followed by engineering. Although there are different institutions at which students in Germany can pursue higher education, most students opt to study at a university or university of applied sciences. These types of institutions also offer the most courses for students to choose from. Private universities As well as having state-funded universities, there are also private universities in Germany. As the name suggests, this means that they are not funded by the state, and therefore students must pay the fees for each semester themselves. This model of higher education is more similar to the one found in England or the U.S. Despite the higher tuition fees, the most popular university in Germany is currently a private one, suggesting that there are possibly some advantages to paying more for your education. It is important to note that comparatively only a very small percentage of students attend private universities. This is likely since they are more expensive, and shows the importance of keeping university affordable so that everyone can have the opportunity to pursue further education.
In Autumn 2024, among the students enrolled in the highest ranked university in the world, Oxford in the United Kingdom, 51 percent were female. See here for an overview of the highest-ranked universities in the world.
There were approximately ******* students enrolled at universities located in Greater Manchester during the 2022/23 academic year in the United Kingdom. Most of these students were studying at either the University of Manchester, which had ****** students enrolled, or the Manchester Metropolitan University, which had ****** students enrolled. Since 2016/17, there has been a net increase of around ****** students in Greater Manchester.
In the academic year of 2022/32, more than ******* Chinese students were studying in the United Kingdom. The number of Chinese students studying in British higher education institutions increased by more than ** percent in the last decade. An attractive destination for Chinese students In recent years, the United Kingdom has overtaken the United States as the top choice among the destination countries for Chinese prospective students. The more affordable tuition fees in the country compared to destinations such as the United States and Australia, the shorter duration of the postgraduate programs, and the reputation of British universities as seen in international rankings have all contributed to the high popularity of the United Kingdom among Chinese students and employers. The diversification of international study destinations At the same time, destinations for Chinese students have become more diverse. The high academic and research performance of the United States in many sectors continues to make it a desirable destination for affluent Chinese students. For students from middle-class or less well-off backgrounds, studying in places such as Japan, Germany, and France are more practical options as these countries offer more affordable programs.
In 2022, Canada had the highest share of adults with a university degree, at over 60 percent of those between the ages of 25 and 64. India had the smallest share of people with a university degree, at 13 percent of the adult population. University around the world Deciding which university to attend can be a difficult decision for some and in today’s world, people are not left wanting for choice. There are thousands of universities around the world, with the highest number found in India and Indonesia. When picking which school to attend, some look to university rankings, where Harvard University in the United States consistently comes in on top. Moving on up One of the major perks of attending university is that it enables people to move up in the world. Getting a good education is generally seen as a giant step along the path to success and opens up doors for future employment. Future earnings potential can be determined by which university one attends, whether by the prestige of the university or the connections that have been made there. For instance, graduates from the Stanford Graduate School of Business can expect to earn around 250,000 U.S. dollars annually.