Welsh speaking ability of higher education students from Wales
See what variables and values are shown in your table
| Variable | Visibility | Selected values | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Entrant marker | Shown in table | All 2 values | Change values |
| Data description | Shown in table | All 17 values | Change values |
Table
Standard shorthand is used in this table: [c] = confidential information, [r] = revised.
| Data values | Data description | Academic year | Provider | Mode of study | Level of study | Entrant marker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9,120 | Number of enrolments: Fluent Welsh speakers | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 8,065 | Number of enrolments: Non-fluent Welsh speakers | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 2,315 | Number of enrolments: Welsh speaker - can speak a fair amount | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 3,835 | Number of enrolments: Welsh speaker - can just speak a little | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 1,915 | Number of enrolments: Welsh speaker - can just say a few words | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 2,295 | Number of enrolments: Welsh speaker - unknown ability level | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 39,155 | Number of enrolments: Not a Welsh speaker | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 10,580 | Number of enrolments: Unknown Welsh speaking ability | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 69,220 | Number of enrolments: All abilities | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 13 | Percentage of enrolments: Fluent Welsh speakers | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 12 | Percentage of enrolments: Non-fluent Welsh speakers | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 3 | Percentage of enrolments: Welsh speaker - can speak a fair amount | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 6 | Percentage of enrolments: Welsh speaker - can just speak a little | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 3 | Percentage of enrolments: Welsh speaker - can just say a few words | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 3 | Percentage of enrolments: Welsh speaker - unknown ability level | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 57 | Percentage of enrolments: Not a Welsh speaker | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 15 | Percentage of enrolments: Unknown Welsh speaking ability | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | All enrolments |
| 3,980 | Number of enrolments: Fluent Welsh speakers | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | Entrants only |
| 3,785 | Number of enrolments: Non-fluent Welsh speakers | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | Entrants only |
| 945 | Number of enrolments: Welsh speaker - can speak a fair amount | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | Entrants only |
| 1,790 | Number of enrolments: Welsh speaker - can just speak a little | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | Entrants only |
| 1,045 | Number of enrolments: Welsh speaker - can just say a few words | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | Entrants only |
| 815 | Number of enrolments: Welsh speaker - unknown ability level | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | Entrants only |
| 17,650 | Number of enrolments: Not a Welsh speaker | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | Entrants only |
| 5,010 | Number of enrolments: Unknown Welsh speaking ability | 2024/25 | All providers | All modes | All levels | Entrants only |
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.
- 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
- fcda7d58-48ac-4cd0-8955-3193446cc2c8
Overview
- Summary of dataset and variables
The data looks at the Welsh speaking ability of students from Wales studying at Welsh higher education providers. The data includes the number and proportion of enrolments from students of various Welsh language abilities.
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.
Entrant marker - all enrolments or those in the first year of their studies.
Level of study
Mode of study - full-time or part-time
Provider
- 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 students' Welsh language ability.
Population included
The enrolments included are those in the HESA standard registration population at Welsh HE providers (and the student's permanent address prior to enrolment was in Wales). 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.
Welsh speaking ability
A self-assessment of a student’s Welsh speaking ability. Prior to 2022/23, there were four options
- Fluent Welsh speaker
- Welsh speaker not fluent
- Not a Welsh speaker
- Unknown
In 2022/23, the collection was changed and the options for non-fluent speakers were expanded to:
- Welsh speaker: can speak a fair amount
- Welsh speaker: can only speak a little
- Welsh speaker: can just say a few words
It also became possible to have students returned as Welsh speakers but with an unknown proficiency level.
- Statistical quality
Data values with a [c] code have been suppressed as they are percentages calculated where the denominator is less than 22.5.
Welsh speaking ability
The 2022/23 HESA Student record was collected using a new data collection system and data model delivered by the ‘Data Futures’ transformation programme. The new system and model represented a considerable change to the collection process and there were an increased number of challenges and issues compared to previous years.
One of the changes related to how Welsh language skills were collected. A more detailed description of non-fluent Welsh speakers’ speaking ability was required, as well as collecting information on students’ ability to read, write and understand Welsh. Due to the scale of the overall change, this was problematic for some providers and lead to a decrease in data quality in 2022/23. In 2022/23, there was a higher than usual number of students with unknown Welsh language skills and some providers had difficulty categorising non-fluent students correctly.
These issues improved in 2023/24 and 2024/25, with data quality being closer to what it was prior to the change in data collection. However, there was still a high proportion of unknown Welsh language ability at University of South Wales and the Open University.
For the University of South Wales, this was largely caused by a software issue that resulted in contradictory data being returned when a student’s information was updated and therefore we were unable to identify what the correct information was for these students. The University of South Wales are working with their software supplier on this issue and expect the number of enrolments affected to be reduced in 2025/26.
The Open University in Wales historically had a high level students with unknown Welsh speaking ability. This was also the case prior to the introduction of Data Futures due to difficulties collecting this information from their students. They also didn’t have any students in the non-fluent category as their students were not asked about the more detailed ability categories introduced in 2022/23, meaning they could only be returned as Welsh speakers of an unknown ability. The Open University for Wales have introduced additional questions have to capture this information, and improvements are likely to be seen for the 2026/27 data collection.
- Rounding applied
Numbers of enrolments have been rounded to the nearest 5.
Percentages have been calculated using unrounded figures and rounded to the nearest 1%. If the denominator for a percentage is less than 22.5 then the percentage has been suppressed.
Published by
- Organisation
- Medr
- Contact email
- HEStats@medr.cymru