Patterns and Trends in UK Higher Education 2012

a report published by Universities UK

Introduction

Over the past decade higher education in the United Kingdom has undergone significant change, from the introduction of variable tuition fees to the increasingly international outlook of the sector. These, along with a number of other changes, have affected almost every aspect of university provision and have served as a precursor to the current reforms of the higher education sector. This report uses data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) to consider some of these developments in more detail, examining the changing size and shape of the sector over time. It will be followed in spring 2013 by a report focusing on monitoring the impact of the current reforms on various aspects of higher education provision.

In 2010–11 there were 165 higher education institutions in the UK. This report features data on all these institutions, all of which are in receipt of public funding from the funding councils, other than the University of Buckingham. This excludes data for the University of Wales (central functions), which has staff but no students. All HESA figures quoted in the report which relate to student and staff numbers have been rounded to the nearest five in accordance with HESA data protection protocols. All percentages have been calculated using the raw figures and rounded to a fixed number of decimal places. It follows that some of the data presented may not sum precisely. Raw data underpinning the charts in this report is available to download from the Universities UK website at www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducationinfocus.

Full text (PDF 28pp)

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