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Higher education enrolments and the number of credits studied in the Welsh language

See what variables and values are shown in your table

Variable	Visibility	Selected values	Action
Number of Welsh medium credits	Shown in table	All 7 values	Change values
Academic year	Shown in table	All 9 values	Change values
Provider	Shown in table	All 21 values	Change values
Mode of study	Shown in table	All 3 values	Change values
Level of study	Shown in table	All 7 values	Change values
Domicile	Shown in table	All 2 values	Change values
Welsh speaking ability	Shown in table	All 6 values	Change values
Sex	Shown in table	All 3 values	Change values
Entrant marker	Shown in table	All 2 values	Change values
Data description	Shown in table	Number of enrolments	Value cannot be changed

Table

Standard shorthand is used in this table: [r] = revised.

Data values	Data description	Academic year	Number of Welsh medium credits	Provider	Mode of study	Level of study	Domicile	Welsh speaking ability	Sex	Entrant marker
143,825	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	All abilities	All	All enrolments
65,705	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	All abilities	All	Entrants only
81,730	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	All abilities	Female	All enrolments
37,070	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	All abilities	Female	Entrants only
60,960	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	All abilities	Male	All enrolments
28,090	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	All abilities	Male	Entrants only
9,160	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: Fluent	All	All enrolments
3,980	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: Fluent	All	Entrants only
6,000	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: Fluent	Female	All enrolments
2,620	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: Fluent	Female	Entrants only
3,095	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: Fluent	Male	All enrolments
1,315	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: Fluent	Male	Entrants only
8,120	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: Non-fluent	All	All enrolments
3,790	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: Non-fluent	All	Entrants only
5,000	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: Non-fluent	Female	All enrolments
2,380	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: Non-fluent	Female	Entrants only
3,010	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: Non-fluent	Male	All enrolments
1,355	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: Non-fluent	Male	Entrants only
2,305	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: unknown level	All	All enrolments
815	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: unknown level	All	Entrants only
1,575	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: unknown level	Female	All enrolments
570	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: unknown level	Female	Entrants only
690	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: unknown level	Male	All enrolments
210	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Welsh speaker: unknown level	Male	Entrants only
39,305	Number of enrolments	2024/25	All enrolments	All providers	All modes	All levels	All	Not a Welsh speaker	All	All enrolments

Showing 1 to 25 of 1,172,304 rows

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Metadata

The metadata for this dataset is not included when you download the data. You can download this separately. This contains all the information from the 'About this dataset' tab.

Next update expected:July 2027

Updates

• 28th July 2026:

  Dataset updated with 2024/25 data.

  Data for 2023/24 has been revised to include updated data from the University of South Wales. The impact of this has been to reduce the overall number of enrolments by 45 while increasing the number of enrolments by students from Wales by 1,010.

  There has also been an update to the number of enrolments with at least 1 Welsh medium credit in 2023/24 as a number of postgraduate research students at Bangor University and University of Wales Trinity Saint David were not categorised correctly. This has increased the number of enrolments with at least 1 credit studied in Welsh by 50 at Bangor University and 5 at University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

• 15th July 2026:

  Removal of the shorthand note coded [t] from data.

• 27th November 2025: Dataset first published.

Main information

• Designation: Official statistics
• Data provider: Higher Education Statistics Agency
• Data source: Student record
• Dataset ID: 3e4b0e1b-5da9-4b8c-8797-9dd08cd6e176

Overview

• Summary of dataset and variables:

  The data shows the number of enrolments at Welsh higher education providers by the number of credits that are studied through the medium of Welsh.

  The data can be broken down by:

  • Academic year - 1 August to 31 July, e.g. 2024/25 is 1 August 2024 to 31 July 2025.

  • Domicile - whether a students permanent address prior to starting their course was in Wales or not in Wales.

  • Entrant marker - all enrolments or those in the first year of their studies.

  • Level of study

  • Mode of study - full-time or part-time

  • Number of Welsh medium credits - the number of credits being studied through Welsh on an enrolment.

  • Provider

  • Sex - the sex of the student as opposed to the gender with which they identify. Students where this has been returned as 'Other', 'Not available' or 'Information refused' are included in the figures for all enrolments.

  • Welsh speaking ability - self-reported ability by the student.

• Data collection or calculation:

  The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects data from higher education providers about students enrolled at their institution. For Welsh higher education providers, this includes collecting data about the percentage of each module that is delivered through the medium of Welsh for each enrolment.

  Population included

  The enrolments included are those in the HESA standard registration population at Welsh HE providers. A student may have more than one enrolment in an academic year, if this is a case then each enrolment is counted separately.

  To be included in the HESA standard population, an enrolment needs to be active in study at least two weeks after their engagement start date or subsequent anniversaries of. Students who are writing-up (and have no active study) after this anniversary date are excluded from the population, as are students expected to study for two weeks or less and who don’t complete their studies or gain a qualification. 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.

  All modules that have some activity in the relevant academic year are included.

  Calculation of number of credits studied in Welsh by subject

  The number of credits taught in Welsh is calculated by multiplying the total number of credits in a module by the percentage delivered in Welsh. For each enrolment the total number of Welsh credits is the sum of the credits for all modules in the enrolment that have had some activity in the relevant academic year.

  Module information for postgraduate research enrolments is optional. For enrolments where module information is not returned then the equivalent information at an enrolment level is used instead.

  Welsh speaking ability

  A student's Welsh language ability is self-reported.

  Up to 2021/22, the categories that could be used were: fluent Welsh speaker, non-fluent Welsh speaker and not a Welsh speaker. There is also an unknown category for where this information is refused or could not be collected.

  From 2022/23, additional categories replaced the non-fluent Welsh speaker category. These were 'can speak a fair amount', 'can only speak a little' or 'can just say a few words' and have been grouped to create a non-fluent category. Therefore students are counted in both the non-fluent and more detailed categories when these are provided.

• Statistical quality:

  Number of credits studied in Welsh

  Determining the percentage of a module that is studied through Welsh for each student is not easy to estimate, and can result in inconsistency between providers and across years. This is particularly the case for modules that are delivered bilingually, and largely affects the numbers of enrolments with lower numbers of credits, such as the 'at least 1 credit' and 'at least 5 credits' categories. For example, University of Wales Trinity Saint David have reviewed how they calculate these percentages, including modules where students may have a 'passive' bilingual experience with materials being provided in Welsh and English, and this was a large factor in the decrease in enrolments with at least 1 credit in Welsh between 2022/23 and 2023/24.

  Medr and the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol have been working with providers to improve the consistency of how this percentage is calculated, and will continue to do so.

  Welsh speaking ability

  A change in how Welsh language ability was collected in 2022/23 resulted in some data quality issues.

  One issue is that the change may affect the consistency in how data was recorded. For example, before 2022/23 a student who knows limited Welsh may have felt their ability wasn't good enough to be a non-fluent Welsh speaker, while in 2022/23 onwards the Welsh speaker: just knows a few words, category may be more appropriate. It doesn't appear that this has had a considerable impact but is something that will be monitored in upcoming years.

  There were also a couple of provider specific issues:

  Open University has had an increased proportion of students of unknown Welsh language ability since 2022/23, with no distinction between unknowns and not being a Welsh speaker as had been the case in 2021/22 and earlier.

  University of South Wales had issues implementing the new data structure, resulting in the following issues:

  • In 2022/23, a larger than expected number of students were returned as being non-fluent speakers, or Welsh speakers of unknown proficiency. This doesn't appear to reflect reality as the numbers fell to more usual levels in 2023/24.
  • In 2023/24, the number of students with an unknown Welsh speaking ability increased due to software issues.

  These provider quality issues also affect sector wide figures, resulting in increased levels of unknowns in both years, and a higher than usual number of non-fluent students in 2022/23.

• Rounding applied:

  Numbers of enrolments have been rounded to the nearest 5.

• Related reports:
  • Welsh language in higher education, 2024/25 (Welsh)
  • Welsh language in higher education, 2024/25 (English)

Published by

• Organisation: Medr
• Contact email: HEStats@medr.cymru