2019/20 and 2020/21 data covers the months of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). This may have affected enrolment figures and therefore extra care should be taken in comparing and interpreting trends over time.
Further education students
The total number of students in further education (FE) in the UK increased in 2022/23, rising in every part of the UK and by 4.1% overall compared to 2021/22 (122,750 students). This is a slightly smaller increase than in 2021/22 (4.8% increase on 2020/21), which marked a change from a trend of decline from 2015/16. Since 2015/16 the total number of FE students across the UK has decreased by 16.1%. Decreases over this period are seen in each part of the UK except in Scotland where the number of FE students has increased across the same period.
In 2022/23, females accounted for 55% of FE students across the UK. Whilst there were more female FE students than male FE students, males were more likely to participate in FE at a younger age than females were. 69% of males participating in FE were less than 30 years old. For females this figure was 50%. In addition, there were twice as many females in FE aged 30 and over than there were males.
Higher education students
In 2022/23, there were 3.03 million students in higher education (HE) in UK further education colleges or higher education providers. 63% of HE students were studying first degrees (also known as bachelor's degrees), 25% were studying a masters or other postgraduate courses, 4% were undertaking a PhD and 8% were on other undergraduate courses.
More females than males made up the overall student population (57%) and females made up a greater share at every level.
The most popular subject was Business and Management with 20% of all students enrolled (over 600,000 students), followed by Subjects allied to Medicine (12%) and Social Sciences (10%). Business and Management had the second most equal split between male and female students after Biological and Sport Sciences. The subjects with the most unequal splits towards females were veterinary sciences (84% female) and psychology (82% female), and towards males were engineering and technology (79% male) and computing (75% male).
The six subjects with the highest enrolment are presented in the chart below by sex. The numbers of students studying subjects other than those in the top six by enrolment are not presented in the chart below, but the figures are available in the table and in the underlying data as well as by level of study.
In 2022/23, 25% of all HE students were from overseas (759,400 students). The number of overseas students as a proportion of total students was greater for postgraduate courses (51% of postgraduate students) than for undergraduate courses (14% of undergraduate students). Slightly more overseas students were female than male (51% share or 18,360 females more) and at postgraduate level there were more male overseas students than UK male students (66,800 more overseas male students to male UK students at postgraduate level). This is a result of both an increase in overseas male postgraduate students and a decrease in UK male postgraduate students compared to 2021/22. Numbers of overseas male postgraduate students have been consistently rising since 2016/17, whereas UK male postgraduate numbers started to decline from 2021/22.
