Student enrolments and number of qualifiers from Wales at higher education providers across the UK by personal characteristics

See what variables and values are shown in your table

Variable	Visibility	Selected values	Action
Data description	Shown in table	All 2 values	Change values
Academic year	Shown in table	All 9 values	Change values
Personal characteristics	Shown in table	All 18 values	Change values
Sex	Shown in table	All 3 values	Change values
Country of HE provider	Shown in table	All 6 values	Change values
Mode of study	Shown in table	All 4 values	Change values
Level of study	Shown in table	All 7 values	Change values
Entrant marker	Shown in table	All 3 values	Change values

Table

Standard shorthand is used in this table: [t] = total.

Data values	Data description	Academic year	Personal characteristics	Sex	Country of HE provider	Mode of study	Level of study	Entrant marker
99,070 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	All levels	All enrolments
44,765 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	All levels	Entrant
54,305 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	All levels	Not an entrant
15,490 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Postgraduate	All enrolments
8,745 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Postgraduate	Entrant
6,745 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Postgraduate	Not an entrant
83,580 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Undergraduate	All enrolments
36,020 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Undergraduate	Entrant
47,560 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Undergraduate	Not an entrant
64,550 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	First degree	All enrolments
21,825 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	First degree	Entrant
42,725 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	First degree	Not an entrant
19,030 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Other undergraduate	All enrolments
14,195 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Other undergraduate	Entrant
4,835 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Other undergraduate	Not an entrant
2,835 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Postgraduate research	All enrolments
995 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Postgraduate research	Entrant
1,840 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Postgraduate research	Not an entrant
12,655 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Postgraduate taught	All enrolments
7,745 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Postgraduate taught	Entrant
4,905 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	All modes	Postgraduate taught	Not an entrant
66,580 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	Full-time	All levels	All enrolments
26,160 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	Full-time	All levels	Entrant
40,420 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	Full-time	All levels	Not an entrant
5,995 [t]	Enrolments	2016/17	Age: All age groups	All	All UK providers	Full-time	Postgraduate	All enrolments

Showing 1 to 25 of 251,748 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:January 2027

Updates

• 20th May 2026:

  Adding missing Welsh translations.

• 29th January 2026: Dataset first published.

Main information

• Designation: Official statistics
• Data provider: Higher Education Statistics Agency
• Data source: Student record

Overview

• Summary of dataset and variables:

  The data shows the number of enrolments and the number of qualifiers at Welsh higher education providers.

  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.

  • Country of provider

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

  • Level of study

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

  • Personal characteristics - either age group, whether a student has a known disability or not, or ethnic background

  • 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.

• Data collection or calculation:

  The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) collects data from higher education providers about students enrolled at their institution.

  Enrolments population

  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.

  Qualifiers population

  The population used for the qualifiers data is the HESA Qualifications obtained population. This population includes student enrolments associated with the award of a higher education qualification during the relevant academic year. This includes qualifications awarded from dormancy, after active study has ceased, and writing-up status.

  Disability data

  Disability information is collected based on a student’s self-assessment and they are not obliged to report any disabilities they have. This information is collected every year so may change over time.

  Ethnicity data

  Ethnicity information is only collected for students whose permanent address prior to starting their studies is in the UK, Guernsey, Jersey or the Isle of Man, and is collected based on the student’s self-assessment. This information is collected every year so may change over time.

• Statistical quality:

  Codes

  Data values with a [t] code are either totals or sub-totals.

  Differences compared to figures published by HESA

  There are some very small differences in the number of enrolments by students from Wales in this data compared to what is published by HESA, for example the number of total number of enrolments in 2016/17 and 2017/18 differ by 5. These differences result from differences in the version of the data being used for older data and differences in how some variables are aggregated.

  Increased proportion of unknowns in ethnicity data from 2022/23

  A new data collection model was introduced for the HESA Student Record data collection from the 2022/23 academic year. The new model made a considerable change to the collection process and there were an increased number of challenges and issues compared to previous years.

  One issue has been an increase in the number of records returned with unknown ethnicity information. In the five years before 2022/23, approximately 1.5% of enrolments by students from Wales were returned with unknown ethnicity. In 2022/23 the proportion of unknowns increased to 2.5% before dropping to 2.2% in 2023/24 and 2.3% in 2024/25.

  More general information about quality issues in the HESA Student Record can be found on the HESA website.

• Rounding applied:

  Figures are rounded to the nearest 5. Totals are calculated on unrounded figures and then rounded to the nearest 5 so may not equal the sum of the constituent parts.

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

Published by

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