Foreign student enrolment in UK higher education surpasses 600,000 in 2020-21

Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) has reported a total of 605,130 international students enrolled in UK for the 2020-21 academic year. This represents a year-over-year increase of nearly 9% from 2019-20. Steady growth in student numbers over the last five years is being driven mainly by China and India. In 2020-21, 32% of all non-EU students were from China, 19% were from India. Students from Nigeria place third in enrolments from outside the EU.

It seems that UK has met its 2030 enrolment target nearly a decade ahead of schedule. UK's international education strategy released in March 2019 set a goal to reach foreign enrolment of 600,000 students by 2030. This growth seems to be fuelled in part by reintroduction of post-study work rights for international students.