Patterns and trends in UK higher education 2017

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This year's report presents data on students and staff at UK higher education institutions covering a 10-year period that has seen a transition to new higher education funding systems in England and Wales, and ongoing challenges related to restrictions on public funding following the economic downturn at the beginning of this period.

The report also looks at patterns in income and expenditure of UK higher education institutions in 2015–16, and for the first time, also includes a forward-looking chapter that considers emerging trends and projections related to demographic, economic, technological and political changes that are likely to have implications for future trends in higher education.

Key points:

• Disadvantaged backgrounds – Students from a wider range of backgrounds are now entering higher education, with the number of 18-year olds from disadvantaged backgrounds on full-time undergraduate courses increasing by 52% since 2006 and reaching record levels in 2016.

• Demand for courses – Entrants to full-time first-degree, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research courses have increased considerably since 2006–07 (by 31.2%, 30.5% and 25.7% respectively), and the proportion of 18 year olds applying and entering HE were at record levels in 2016. However, demand for part-time courses has continued to decline, with entrants to part-time first degree courses falling by 28.6% and entrants to other part-time undergraduate courses by 63.1% since 2006-07.

• International staff – Non-UK nationals accounted for nearly two thirds of growth in all academic staff since 2006-07. For some subjects, such as engineering, and the humanities and language-based studies, non-UK nationals have accounted for most of the growth in academic staff numbers (63.5% and 54.6% of growth between 2006–07 and 2015–16 respectively).

• Staff equality and diversity – Between 2009–10 and 2015–16, consistent increases are reported in the number and proportion of both black and minority ethnic (BME) and female professors. BME professors increased by 50.7% over the period (compared to 10.5% for white staff) and female professors increased by 41.8% (compared to 6.5% for males), however both groups are still under-represented among professors in 2015-16.​

• Employment – Young and older graduates have had consistently lower unemployment rates and higher earnings compared with non-graduates, even during recessions. In 2016, graduates aged 21-30 were 40% less likely to be unemployed compared to non-graduates in the same age group.​

​Additional ​resources:

• ​patterns-and-trends-2017-supplementary-data.xls