The data relates to students enrolled between 1 August 2020 and 31 July 2021, the first full academic year to be affected by the Covid pandemic.

Headline statistics include:

• The total number of HE students stood at 2,751,865 in 2020/21, an increase of 9% from 2019/20.
• The number of first year postgraduate students rose by 16% while the number of first-degree entrants rose by 8%.
• The number of first year students from the UK rose by 13% while the number from non-UK countries rose by 4%.
• The number of first year students from India rose by 27% but the number from China fell for the first time by 5%.

As well as increases in student numbers enrolled in the UK there was an even greater increase in the number of students studying wholly overseas. The number of transnational students studying for UK qualifications grew by 13% from 2019/20 to 2020/21, meaning that 605,130 international students were enrolled at United Kingdom higher education providers in 2020-21 – meeting the target set in the country’s international education strategy well ahead of schedule.

Another report released at the same time from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), which looked at the 2021 recruitment cycle, showed a 12% increase in applications to study in the UK from people outside the European Union in the first half of this academic year. However, this positive trend is tempered by a severe drop in applications from students in the EU post-Brexit.

Brexit may actually have helped offset the fall in students coming from countries remaining in the European Union enrolled at UK universities in 2020-21, as the 2020-21 academic year was the last year in which EU students were guaranteed home fee status, which may have encouraged EU applicants not to defer their studies.

UCAS data, released on 27 January, painted a far gloomier picture on current and future trends for UK student recruitment from EU countries. It showed that at the end of the 2021 UCAS recruitment cycle the number of EU applicants fell by 40% and the number of EU students accepted on to courses to study in the UK was half of the number for the year before.

However, the number of 18-year-olds domiciled in the UK is rising and helping to offset the fall in EU student demand, with the UCAS End of Cycle 2021 report showing home demand for university places growing. The new UCAS data reveals 7% more UK 18-year-olds winning higher education places in 2021 – up 27,235 on the 257,895 placed in 2020.