Data set from Higher Level Learners in England

Equivalent or lower qualification

Latest data

Published 8 October 2026

Last updated 8 October 2026

English-domiciled higher-level learners in England by equivalent or lower qualification (ELQ) status. OfS-recognised HE only.

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Data set details

• Theme: Higher education
• Publication: Higher Level Learners in England
• Release: Academic year 2024/25
• Number of rows: 10,560
• Geographic levels: National, Regional
• Indicators:
  • Number of entrants
  • Number of qualifiers
  • Percentage of all enrolments by characteristic
• Filters:
  • Broad type of higher learning
  • Detailed type of higher learning
  • Equivalent or lower qualification already held
• Time period: 2015/16 to 2024/25

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Data set preview

Table showing first 5 rows, from underlying data

time_period	time_identifier	geographic_level	country_code	country_name	region_code	region_name	level	broad_type_of_learning	detailed_type_of_learning	equivalent_or_lower_qualification	number_of_entrants	number_of_enrolments	number_of_qualifiers	percentage_of_entrants_by_characteristic	percentage_of_all_enrolments_by_characteristic	percentage_of_qualifiers_by_characteristic
201516	Academic year	National	E92000001	England			Level 4	Higher education	OfS-recognised HE	ELQ aim to qualifications already held	4525	6445	4320	23.8	23.1	17.1
201516	Academic year	National	E92000001	England			Level 4	Higher education	OfS-recognised HE	Not an ELQ aim to qualifications already held	14450	21430	20985	76.2	76.9	82.9
201516	Academic year	National	E92000001	England			Level 4	Higher education	OfS-recognised HE	Total	22790	33395	28895	100	100	100
201516	Academic year	National	E92000001	England			Level 4	Higher education	OfS-recognised HE	Unknown	3815	5520	3595	z	z	z
201516	Academic year	National	E92000001	England			Level 4	Higher education	Total	ELQ aim to qualifications already held	4525	6445	4320	23.8	23.1	17.1

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Variables in this data set

Table showing first 5 of 10 variables

Variable name	Variable description
broad_type_of_learning	Broad type of higher learning
detailed_type_of_learning	Detailed type of higher learning
equivalent_or_lower_qualification	Equivalent or lower qualification already held
level	Level of study
number_of_enrolments	Total number of enrolments

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Footnotes

1. See the publication Methodology for explanation of differences from other official statistics on apprenticeships and higher education.
2. The “Other higher level - Unfunded” category is a lower bound estimate. There is likely to be some unfunded-learning in FE providers that is not recorded as it is only mandatory for providers to record information in the ILR for their government-funded learners. There may also be higher level learning in the private sector that is not recorded in administrative data held by government.
3. Caution should be applied when interpreting these statistics due to the high level of unknowns. To allow for comparisons across learning types, percentages are based on learners where ELQ status is known.
4. Since 2022/23, HESA have reported a larger amount of missing permanent address information at a number of providers. Some of the missing data relates to continuing students for whom it was not possible to retrieve the information from the legacy submissions. Other missing data may be attributed to missing entry information.
5. Geographies are taken from the National Statistics Postcode Lookup based on boundaries as of February 2024.

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Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Equivalent or lower qualification statistics and data:

HE Participation and Provider Statistics Team

Email: he.statistics@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Louis Erritt

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