Academic year 2022/23

Higher Level Learners in England

This is the latest data
Published
Release type
Receive updates
Sign up for email alerts
Produced by
Department for Education

Introduction

This statistics publication presents an overview of participation and achievements in higher-level learning at Further Education Providers (FEPs) and Higher Education Providers (HEPs) for English-domiciled learners in England in the academic year 2022/23.

Throughout this publication, higher-level learning refers to learning at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Levels 4 to 8 (opens in a new tab). Qualifications covered are at a higher level than A levels or equivalent, and include a range of qualification aims, such as foundation degrees, first degrees and Doctorates.

The statistics show how higher-level skills provision was organised in 2022/23 which will aid our understanding of the potential impacts of the government’s skills reforms and assist in future policy decisions.

The statistics in this release will mainly focus on entrants to higher-level learning rather than total enrolments. Entrants data provides a more responsive yearly snapshot that is not skewed by qualifications that are studied for longer periods of time. Detailed characteristic breakdowns on total enrolments, entrants and qualifiers from 2015/16 to 2022/23 can be found in the underlying data files. 

This official statistics series is being published on an experimental basis. DfE welcomes feedback. If you have any comment, please email  he.statistics@education.gov.uk.

Related information

Releases in this series

View releases (3) for Higher Level Learners in England

Methodologies

Headline facts and figures - 2022/23

Explore data and files used in this release

  • View or create your own tables

    View tables that we have built for you, or create your own tables from open data using our table tool

  • Data catalogue

    Browse and download open data files from this release in our data catalogue

  • Data guidance

    Learn more about the data files used in this release using our online guidance

  • Download all data (ZIP)

    Download all data available in this release as a compressed ZIP file

Additional supporting files

All supporting files from this release are listed for individual download below:

Go to top

About this release

Introduction

These statistics provide a holistic view of higher-level learning across the further and higher education sectors, covering both higher education and apprenticeships (funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency and employers, where students earn whilst learning).

The statistics show how higher-level skills provision was organised in 2022/23 and aid our understanding of the potential impacts of the government’s skills reforms. In particular, it will assist future policy understanding for Higher Technical Qualification (HTQ) reform and the flexible Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE). 

The publication presents analysis of the further and higher education sectors after combining two separate data sources:

  • The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s (ESFA) Individualised Learner Record (ILR) data for FEPs, and
  • The Higher Education Statistics Agency’s (HESA, now part of Jisc) Student and Alternative Student records for HEPs.

Statistics on learning in further education (opens in a new tab) and higher education (opens in a new tab) have typically been published as separate publications. This makes it complicated to quantify the totality of learning that happens at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) levels 4 to 8. Combined FE and HE statistics are particularly important for understanding learning at education levels 4 and 5, as this is delivered roughly equally across both sectors.

Coverage

This release refers only to learners in England studying at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Levels 4 to 8 (opens in a new tab). 

Analysis is presented for English-domiciled learners to reflect funding eligibility more closely and allow for consistent comparisons across both HESA and ILR sources.

Most of the data included in this release refers to academic year 2022/23. However, detailed time series data for all academic years back to 2015/16 can be found in the underlying data files. Please note, figures may differ slightly to previous iterations of this release due to revisions in the underlying data and methodology over time.

Changes in this release

For the first time, a breakdown of higher-level learners by the local authority of their permanent address prior to study is available to be downloaded from the underlying data.

HESA and Data Futures

For the 2022/23 academic year, Jisc introduced a new collection system, the HESA Data Platform (HDP), and a new data model (Data Futures), designed to meet the needs of the current funding and regulatory landscape. As a result of these changes to the model, in this first year of collection there have been a larger number of data quality issues compared to previous years. Therefore, we advise caution when comparing higher education figures across the time series. Further information can be found in the Methodologies section of this release.

Timeliness

The timeliness of this publication has been impacted by the delay in availability of the HESA Student Record data for the 2022/23 academic year. The delay to the 2022/23 Student Record resulted from complexity in implementing the new data model and data collection systems across the UK higher education sector. The 2022/23 Student record was published in August 2024, delayed from the usual January publishing timeframe. Further information can be found on the HESA website (opens in a new tab).

COVID-19 impacts

HESA published a COVID-19 insight brief (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab) that analyses the impact of the pandemic on student data and trends across the years of enrolments and qualifications across various characteristics.

The varying COVID-19 restrictions will also have impacted on apprenticeships and traineeship learning as well as provider reporting behaviour via the Individualised Learner Record. For example, a number of providers experienced administrative hold-ups resulting in some achievements that were not reported in the 2019/20 academic year being carried over to 2020/21 or 2021/22.

Additional care should be taken in comparing and interpreting data for academic years 2019/20 and beyond in this release.

Background

To produce these statistics, information has been standardised across both the ILR and HESA datasets. Extensive data processing is required to harmonise the information across the HESA and ILR data and remove duplicate records.

Learners can be recorded twice through both collections and duplicates have been removed. Where there is a duplication of learners across the ILR and HESA records, the HESA record is retained. The only exception to this is in the case of apprenticeships, where the ILR record is considered the authoritative record of the learning.

Apprenticeships are a count of programmes recorded in the ILR and undertaken in an academic year. An apprenticeship programme can contain multiple component qualifications, which make up part of the overarching apprenticeship framework or standard. In line with other official statistics publications on apprenticeships, the overarching programme is counted rather than the component qualifications. Component qualifications like degrees would normally be classed under OfS-recognised HE learning, but the overarching apprenticeship programmes are prioritised as the type of higher-level learning in this release. 

Apprenticeships are included in this release if they were at National Qualifications Framework (NQF) levels 4 and above. Counts differ slightly to other official statistics publications on apprenticeships due to the restriction of English-domiciled learners only in this release.

This publication can only report the higher-level learning that is recorded in administrative data held by government. 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 ESFA-funded learners. There may also be higher-level learning in the private sector that is not recorded in administrative data held by government.  This means that any reference to an “Other Higher level - Unfunded” category of learners should be considered a lower bound estimate. 

Rounding and suppression

The Code of Practice for Official Statistics (opens in a new tab) requires DfE to take reasonable steps to ensure that its published or disseminated statistics protect confidentiality.

Throughout the publication, all numbers are rounded to the nearest 5 to preserve confidentiality. Percentages are calculated on pre-rounded data but are not published if they are fractions of a small group of people (fewer than 22.5).

Due to rounding, it is possible that the sum of the category percentages may not always total to 100%.

Go to top

Type of higher-level learning

Entrants (first year learners only)

Between the academic years 2021/22 and 2022/23, the total number of English-domiciled entrants to higher education (not including apprenticeships) in England has fallen for the second year in a row from a high of 762,260 in 2020/21 to 731,745 in 2022/23. 

While the number of entrants to HE in 2022/23 is lower than in 2020/21 and 2021/22, it is still 6.4% higher than in 2019/20, mostly due to an atypical sharp increase of 10.8% in the number of entrants between 2019/20 and 2020/21.

Compared to 2021/22, the number of entrants to apprenticeships has increased by 6,380 to 111,360 in 2022/23. The number of entrants to apprenticeships in 2022/23, is over four times greater than the number in 2015/16 (26,870).

For the first time in this release, learners undertaking taught work with an unspecified qualification aim at HEPs are counted under the 'OfS recognised HE' category, rather than the 'Other higher level - Unfunded' category. This is to align with how qualification aim data is captured by HESA from 2022/23 onwards and affects a few hundred learners per academic year.

Across the time-series between academic years 2015/16 and 2022/23, the total number of English-domiciled entrants to higher-level learning in England has increased by 15.8%, from 728,140 to 843,110. The increase since 2015/16 has been mostly driven by increases in OfS-recognised HE at levels 6 and 7 and apprenticeships at levels 4 to 7. 

Total enrolments (all years of learning)

Between the academic years 2021/22 and 2022/23, the total number of English-domiciled enrolments to higher-level learning in England has increased by 0.4%, from 1,985,930 to 1,992,955. This is mostly driven by increases in enrolments in apprenticeships at all levels. 

Across the timeseries between academic years 2015/16 and 2022/23, the total number of English-domiciled enrolments to higher-level learning in England has increased by 20.2%, from 1,657,835 to 1,992,955. This is mostly driven by increases in higher education at levels 6 and 7 and apprenticeships at levels 4 to 7. 

Compared to 2015/16, enrolments in apprenticeships have increased by almost six times, from 46,480 to 270,615 in 2022/23. Increases in apprenticeships occurred at all levels, with level 6 having the largest increase in total enrolments (by 69,870), followed by level 4 (by 62,720).

Go to top

Level of study

In the academic year 2022/23, 843,110 English-domiciled entrants started a qualification at an English HE provider or FE provider, with the majority doing so at level 6 (471,610) representing 55.9% of entrants this year.

Between the academic years 2021/22 and 2022/23, the total number of English-domiciled entrants to higher-level learning in England rose for all levels except for level 7 and level 8, which decreased by 4.0% and 2.0% respectively.

Between the academic years 2021/22 and 2022/23, entrants to level 4 increased by 5.0%, entrants to level 5 increased by 4.3% and entrants to level 6 increased by 0.4%.

Go to top

Mode of study (in OfS recognised HE)

Information on mode of study in this section has been included for OfS-recognised HE only as it is more robustly defined for this group of learners.

The number of full-time entrants to OfS-recognised HE increased by 13.1% since 2015/16 (from 474,845 to 537,020 in 2022/23) while part-time entrants decreased by 9.8% (from 148,840 to 134,250 over the same period). 

Between 2015/16 and 2022/23, entrants to part-time OfS recognised HE at levels 4 and 5 saw decreases of 57.7% and 49.3% respectively. Part-time entrants at levels 6 and 8 also showed a decrease but at a lower rate, with a 10.1% decrease for level 6 and a 4.5% decrease for level 8. Only part-time entrants at level 7 increased over this time, rising from 61,460 in 2015/16 to 70,030 in 2022/23 (a 13.9% increase).

Across all levels of study, part-time entrants to OfS recognised HE decreased by 13.8% between 2015/16 and 2019/20 from 148,840 to 128,315. Part-time entrants subsequently increased by 14.8% to 147,285 in 2020/21, before falling to 134,250 in 2022/23.

The proportion of English domiciled entrants to OfS recognised HE at levels 4 to 8 that were part-time decreased from 23.9% in 2015/16 to 20.0% in 2022/23. In 2022/23, just 10.4% of entrants to HE at level 6 studied part-time, compared to 40.9% of entrants to a level 7 qualification.

Go to top

Provider type

Provider type refers to the provider the learner is registered with. This is not necessarily the provider where the learning is taking place. For example, if a franchising arrangement existed between a HEP (registering provider) and a further education college (delivering the learning), the learner is reported under the HEP provider type. In 2022/23, there were around 138,000 enrolments (all years of study) whose higher education was subcontracted out to another provider. The majority of delivery providers were private companies or FE providers. For more information, see Subcontractual arrangements in higher education - Office for Students. (opens in a new tab)

Of the 843,110 English-domiciled higher-level entrants in England in 2022/23: 

  • 85.8% (723,630) were registered at HEPs, 
  • 5.5% (46,470) were registered at general FE colleges, 
  • 7.8% (66,020) were registered at private sector public funded providers, and 
  • 0.8% (6,990) were registered at schools, sixth form colleges, private sector providers or another type of provider.

Level 4 and 5 provision was more evenly distributed amongst different provider types than higher levels of provision, which are almost exclusively offered at HEPs. In the academic year 2022/23, 30.5% of higher-level entrants at level 4 were registered at HEPs and 43.9% of higher-level entrants at level 5 were registered at HEPs, compared with 96.8% of higher-level entrants at level 6 and 93.3% at level 7. There was a higher proportion of level 4 and 5 learners registered at private sector public funded providers compared to other levels, which was largely explained by the higher proportion of apprenticeships at these levels. 

Go to top

Qualification aim

The qualification aim (or study aim) is what the learner is aiming to achieve from their studies.  This may differ to what they actually achieve when they complete their studies. The learner may achieve a level 4 to 8 qualification, or alternatively accrue some institutional credit at one of those levels from 4 to 8.

There were 72,440 English-domiciled learners entering level 4 in England in 2022/23. At this level, the most common qualification aim was apprenticeships (51.4%). 

There were 70,500 English-domiciled learners entering level 5 in England in 2022/23. At this level, the most common qualification aims were apprenticeships (39.8%), foundation degrees (20.4%) and Higher National Diplomas (13.6%).

In 2022/23, 90.7% of the 471, 610 English-domiciled learners entering level 6 in England were aiming for a first degree (excluding integrated master's degree).

Go to top

Funding source of tuition fees (in OfS recognised HE)

Some learners in the HESA and ILR data are recorded as having an unknown funding source and this occurs more often at different levels of learning. In 2022/23, 1.7% (14,380) of higher-level entrants were recorded as having an unknown funding source. However, 7.9% (11,335) of level 4 and 5 entrants had an unknown funding source, compared to 0.6% (2,670) for level 6. These differences are due to FEPs being more likely to report incomplete data on funding source to the ILR. To allow for meaningful comparisons across levels, this section focuses on learners undertaking OfS recognised HE only and the following percentages are based only where funding source is known.

HESA's 2022/23 data collection model did not allow providers to flag instances where no fees were charged for a learner's course and providers were asked to to return these as 'Other’ instead. Accounting for this, and to allow for a more robust comparison across time, the codes for 'No fees' and ‘Other’ have been combined in both HESA and ILR data to create the category ‘Unspecified other funding source or no fees required for course’.

For 2023/24 a new valid entry will be added to allow providers to indicate where there are 'No fees'.  

OfS-recognised HE refers to qualifications that are classed as recognised HE for Office for Students (OfS) funding purposes (as defined in Annex B of OfS HESES guidance (opens in a new tab)). For OfS-recognised HE learning, student loans were the most common source of funding at each level from 4 to 6, but in smaller proportions at levels 4 and 5. 

Of the 662,030 OfS-recognised HE English-domiciled higher-level entrants in England in 2022/23 with known funding source, 

  • At level 4, 53.8% had a student loan as their primary source of tuition fees and 26.4% had no award or financial backing. The remaining 19.8% had their fees funded by other sources (including from employers or other government sources, for example, relevant health care courses) or had no course fees.
  • At level 5, 70.7% had a student loan as their primary source of tuition fees, 14.1% had no award or financial backing and 15.2% had their fees funded by other sources or had no course fees.
  • At level 6, 83.5% had a student loan as their primary source of tuition fees, 12.6% had no award or financial backing and 4.0% had their fees funded by other sources or had no course fees.

For other higher-level courses that were not OfS-recognised, there was a total of 5,025 English domiciled higher-level entrants who took out an Advanced Learner Loan (ALL) as their primary source of tuition fees in 2022/23. Advanced Learner Loans are available from Student Finance England for those aged 19 or above on the first day of their course to help cover the costs of a level 3, 4, 5 or 6 qualification at an approved college or training provider in England.  For more information on Advanced Learner Loans, including funding rules and qualifications available for funding, please see the Advanced Learner Loans guidance. (opens in a new tab)

Counts of learners funding their tuition with student loans and Advanced Learner Loans (ALLs) differ slightly to those published by the Student Loans Company (SLC). Refer to the methodology section at the end of this page for more details.

Go to top

Age

Age refers to the learner’s age at the start of the academic year. A very small number of learners (55 entrants) had unknown age. The following percentages are based on learners where age is known.

There were 843,055 English-domiciled learners entering higher-level learning in England in 2022/23 with known age:

  • Entrants to levels 4 and 5 were more likely to be older than those entering level 6. Most entrants to level 4 (78.5%) and level 5 (84.1%) were aged 21 and above, compared to 38.4% of entrants at level 6.
  • Entrants to higher education were more likely to be younger than those entering apprenticeships. In 2022/23, 56.3% of HE entrants were aged 21 and above, compared to 85.8% for apprenticeships.
  • Almost all of the level 5 and level 7 apprenticeship starts were aged 21 and above (96.5% and 95.0% respectively), compared to 82.0% for level 4 apprenticeship starts and 71.1% for level 6 apprenticeship starts.
Go to top

Sex

This publication refers to the legal sex of the learner, as opposed to the gender in which they identify.

HESA's sex identifier coding frame changed in the 2022/23 academic year to includes new codes for 'Not available' and ‘Information refused’. Some HEPs appear to have returned one of the new codes ‘Information Refused’ and ‘Not Available’ for students previously returned as 'other', Therefore, it has been deemed not appropriate to show these categories separately in the published data and they have been aggregated with ‘other’.

The following percentages are based on learners where sex is known.

There were 837,935 English-domiciled learners entering higher-level learning in England in 2022/23 with their sex recorded as either male or female:

  • Entrants were more likely to be female at every level of study. Levels 4 (46.8%) and 8 (43.4%) had the highest proportion of male entrants.
  • Both apprenticeships and higher education had a higher proportion of entrants that were female. Of the 111,360 entrants to apprenticeships in 2022/23, 44.9% were male and of the 731,745 entrants to HE, 39.9% were male.
Go to top

Ethnicity

Some learners are recorded as having unknown ethnicity, and this occurs more often for certain types of learning. In 2022/23, 5.9% (49,515) of learners entering all types of higher-level study were recorded as having unknown ethnicity. This was largely due to increased levels of unknown ethnicity reported by HEPs this year, which increased from 2.5% (18,495) in 2021/22 to 6.5% (47,825) in 2022/23. Just 1.5% (3,380) of apprenticeship starts had unknown ethnicity in 2022/23. To allow for meaningful comparisons across learning types, the following percentages are based on learners where ethnicity is known.

For the 2022/23 academic year, HESA has deemed the level of missing ethnicity data to be sufficiently high in England not to publish based solely on the data submitted for this collection. To mitigate this, student level ethnicity data from the previous year (if available) has been used to fill in ethnicity gaps for continuing students at providers in England and a similar exercise has been undertaken for this release.

There were 793,595 English-domiciled learners entering higher-level study in England in 2022/23 with known ethnicity:

  • Across all levels of study, the majority of entrants to higher-level learning in England had a white ethnic background.
  • Level 6 had a higher proportion of entrants from black (10.1%) backgrounds compared to all other levels. Just over two thirds (67.1%) of entrants to level 6 were from white backgrounds.
  • Level 7 had a higher proportion of entrants from Asian (15.9%) backgrounds compared to all other levels.
  • Levels 6 & 8 both had a higher proportion of entrants from mixed (5.6% each) backgrounds compared to all other levels.
  • Level 8 had a higher proportion of entrants from other (2.9%) backgrounds compared to all other levels.
  • Higher education had higher proportions of entrants from Asian (14.7%), black (10.1%), mixed (5.2%) and other (2.6%) ethnic backgrounds compared to apprenticeships. Two thirds (67.4%) of entrants to HE were from white backgrounds, which is lower than the proportion of entrants to apprenticeships from white backgrounds (81.2%).
  • The majority (81.2%) of entrants to apprenticeships in 2022/23 were from white backgrounds. Just 9.3% of entrants were from an Asian background, 5.1% of entrants were from a black background, 3.4% were from a mixed background and 1.0% were from any other ethnic background. 
Go to top

Disability

Disability is based on the learners own self-assessment and includes those with learning difference such as dyslexia, dyspraxia or AD(H)D.

From 2022/23, HESA has introduced a new disability coding frame. Providers are now able to return up to nine different disabilities for each student, where previously students with multiple disabilities would be coded under the more general 'Two or more impairments and/or disabling medical condition'. Providers are expected to re-survey their continuing students and update their disability information where appropriate, however, the data suggests that not all providers have managed to do so.

There were 843,110 English-domiciled learners entering higher-level study in England in 2022/23.

  • Of these entrants, 17.6% had self-reported a disability, an increase from 11.7% in 2015/16.
  • Entrants to apprenticeships were less likely to have reported a disability compared to entrants to higher education. In 2022/23, 11.6% of entrants to apprenticeships had reported a disability, compared to 18.5% of entrants to HE.
  • Entrants to levels 4 and 5 were less likely to have reported a disability compared to higher levels. In 2022/23, 15.0% of entrants to level 4 and 14.4% of entrants to level 5 had reported a disability compared to 18.6% for level 6, 17.3% for entrants to level 7 and 22.2% for entrants to level 8.
Go to top

Region of domicile

Region of domicile has been derived from the location of the learner’s permanent home address before starting their course. In 2022/23, around 500 entrants to higher-level learning were known to have a permanent address in England but did not have specific address listed, therefore their region of domicile is not able to be determined. The following percentages are based on learners where region of domicile is known.

In 2022/23, HESA reported a large 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.

There were 842,610 English-domiciled learners entering higher-level study in England in 2022/23 and of these entrants with known domicile:

  • London was the region of domicile with the highest proportion of entrants to all levels of study except for level 4, where 15.4% of entrants were domiciled in the South East, compared to 15.1% in London. Across all levels of study, 21.3% of entrants to higher-level learning were domiciled in London.
  • The North East was the region of domicile with the lowest proportion of entrants. In 2022/23, 4.4% of all entrants were domiciled in the North East.
  • The regions of domicile with the highest proportions of apprenticeship starts were the South East (15.9%), London (14.2%) and the North West (14.1%). Just 4.7% of apprenticeship starts were domiciled in the North East.
  • Those starting apprenticeships were less likely to come from London when compared to those entering higher education. In 2022/23, 14.2% of apprenticeship starts came from London compared to 22.4% for HE entrants.
Go to top

Disadvantage (Index of Multiple Deprivation, IMD)

The Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) quintile of learners has been derived from the neighbourhood of the learner’s permanent home address before starting their course. 

The English indices of deprivation (IMD) (opens in a new tab) is maintained by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and applies only to those domiciled in England. Data displayed in this publication relate to IMD 2015. Quintile 1 areas are considered to be the most deprived, ascending to quintile 5 areas which are considered to be the least deprived.

A very small number of entrants to higher-level learning that were known to have a permanent address in England had unknown IMD domicile (500 entrants). The following percentages are based on learners where IMD domicile is known.

There were 842,610 English-domiciled learners entering higher-level study in England in 2022/23 with known IMD domicile,

  • Entrants to levels 4, 5 and 6 were more likely to have come from deprived neighbourhoods (IMD quintile 1) compared to levels 7 and 8. In 2022/23, 22.6% of entrants from level 4 to 6 came from IMD quintile 1 neighbourhoods compared to 15.8% for levels 7 and 8.
  • Entrants to higher education were more likely to have come from deprived neighbourhoods (IMD quintile 1) compared to those starting level 4-7 apprenticeships (there are no level 8 apprenticeships). In 2022/23, 21.3% of entrants to HE learning came from IMD quintile 1 neighbourhoods compared to 17.0% for apprenticeship starts.
Go to top

Subject

Subjects have been categorised using the Common Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH) (opens in a new tab) level 1, which was the classification used for HEPs. The Learn Direct Classification System (LDCS) codes and sector subject area categories used in FE providers included in the ILR have been mapped to the closest available  Common Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH) (opens in a new tab). See the “Data processing” section in the publication methodology notes for more details of this mapping.

There were 843,110 English-domiciled learners entering higher-level study in England in 2022/23:

  • Business and management was the most popular subject area for entrants at levels 4 and 5. This was also true for level 6, but the distribution across subjects at this level was more balanced. Subjects allied to medicine and Psychology were the most popular subject areas for levels 7 and 8 respectively.
  • The distribution of subject uptake is more evenly spread amongst higher education entrants compared to apprenticeship entrants. In 2022/23, 42.9% of apprenticeship starts were in Business and management, compared to 16.7% of higher education entrants.
Go to top

Technical education route for level 4 and 5 courses

The Sainsbury Review and Post-16 Skills Plan (opens in a new tab) set out fifteen technical routes describing occupations that require technical and higher technical education. Reforms to higher technical education (opens in a new tab) include the introduction of Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) from September 2022 onwards. HTQs are qualifications at levels 4 and 5 that have been assessed by the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) (opens in a new tab) to meet employer-led occupational standards within the technical routes.

In the 2022/23 academic year, there were 265 entrants to HTQs reported by FEPs via the ILR. Currently, we do not have HTQ data from HEPs but from the 2023/24 collection onwards, HESA will allow HEPs to identify students undertaking a HTQ. Therefore, a complete picture of the number of HTQs started in England in 2022/23 is not yet available. By analysing the HESA student record, DfE estimates that the number of entrants to HTQs in the 2022/23 academic year across both HEPs and FEPs in England to be around 850. 

As with previous iterations of this publication, level 4 and 5 provision has been mapped to the fifteen technical education routes to give a broad indication of current supply of technical learning in these areas.  The routes have been mapped to the CAH subject coding system used by HESA and this mapping has been created internally within DfE. Data on apprenticeships and institutional credit learning are excluded from this section. Full details of the methodology used is described in the “Methodology” notes. The mapping is not the same as the approval process for HTQs used by the IfATE  employer led approvals system (opens in a new tab). Counts provided in each technical route in this publication are based on subject classifications rather than an assessment of whether qualifications meet the employer-led occupational standards within the routes. It is our intention in future publications to alter this section and report only on qualifications that have been approved as Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) as per IfATE guidance (opens in a new tab).

There were 25,350 English-domiciled learners entering level 4 study in England in 2022/23 (excluding apprenticeships and institutional credits). At this level, 89.7% were in a technical education route and of which, the most popular subject areas were Care services (17.0%) and Engineering and manufacturing (15.1%).

For the 38,935 English-domiciled learners entering level 5 in England in 2022/23 (excluding apprenticeships and institutional credits), 94.9% were in a technical education route, of which the most popular subject area was Business and administration (27.3%) followed by Education and childcare (24.3%).

Go to top

Equivalent or lower qualification (ELQ) status (in OfS recognised HE)

Access to student finance can be impacted by whether the relevant course is at the same level or below the level of an award the learner already holds. This is determined by the Equivalent or Lower Qualification (ELQ) status.  This information is derived for OfS-recognised HE learners as prior qualifications are less well recorded on entry to other learning types.

Some learners are recorded as having unknown qualification on entry status and this occurs more often at different levels of learning. In 2022/23, 9.6% of OfS-recognised HE entrants were recorded as having an unknown ELQ status. However, 10.3% of level 4 and 16.9% of level 5 entrants had an unknown ELQ status compared to 4.0% for level 7. These differences are due to FEPs being more likely to report incomplete entry qualification data to the ILR. To allow for meaningful comparisons across learning types, the following percentages are based on learners where ELQ status is known. Caution should be applied when interpreting these statistics due to the high level of unknowns.

There were 606,600 English-domiciled learners entering OfS-recognised HE in England in 2022/23 that have a known ELQ status. Level 4 (18.3%), 5 (19.8%) and Level 7 (19.9%) entrants were more likely to be aiming for an ELQ that they already held compared to level 6 (4.5%) entrants. This may be driven by level 4, 5 and 7 entrants being older and so would therefore be more likely to be retraining compared to level 6 entrants.

The following chart shows the NQF levels to which entrants to each NQF level of study were qualified prior to study.

In 2022/23, the highest level of qualification already held by entrants to OfS-recognised HE at levels 4, 5 and 6 was most commonly level 3. 

Entrants to OfS-recognised HE at level 7 were most likely to be qualified to level 6 (64.7%), and entrants to level 8 were most likely to be qualified to level 7 (79.8%).

Go to top

Qualifiers

A qualifier refers to learners who obtained a qualification at some point during the academic year stated. 

Covid-19

A number of providers experienced administrative hold-ups related to the COVID-19 pandemic which began in the 2019/20 academic year. As such, some achievements that were not reported in the 2019/20 academic year were carried over to 2020/21 or 2021/22. Hence caution should be taken when comparing and interpreting data from the academic years 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22.

Marking and Assessment Boycott  2023

The Marking and Assessment Boycott 2023 has had an impact on qualification awards. Some providers have been unable to return all awarded qualifications resulting in an undercounting for 2022/23. This may result in a subsequent peak in 2023/24.

Data Futures

Derived fields relating to highest qualification awarded are based solely on qualification information returned in 2022/23 and do not use legacy HESA data to identify qualifications which have been previously returned. Therefore, some double counting of qualifications is possible.

Headline data

Between academic years 2021/22 and 2022/23, the total number of English-domiciled qualifiers in higher-level learning in England has increased by 2.1%, from 558,530 to 570,210. This was almost entirely driven by an increase in apprenticeships at all levels. The greatest increase in total number of qualifiers was at level 6 with an increase of 10,040. The greatest proportional increase was at level 4 with an increase of 6.7%. 

Across the timeseries between academic years 2015/16 and 2022/23, the total number of English-domiciled qualifiers in higher-level learning in England has increased by 13.4%, from 502,660 to 570,210. This was mostly driven by increases in qualifiers in HE at level 7 and apprenticeships at all levels. The total number of qualifiers at level 4 increased by 23.5%, but at level 5 decreased by 18.0%. The decrease in qualifiers at level 5 is driven by a decrease in qualifiers in HE by over a third (50,765 in 2015/16 to 33,250 in 2022/23).

The number of learners to complete an apprenticeship is almost seven times higher in 2022/23 than in 2015/16 (from 6,885 in 2015/16 to 45,870 in 2022/23). Increases in apprenticeships occurred at all levels, with level 4 having the largest increase in qualifiers (by 11,575).

Region of domicile

There were 568,465 English-domiciled qualifiers at higher-level study in England in 2022/23 with known region of domicile:

  • London was the region of domicile with the highest number of qualifiers overall. Levels 6 (21.5%), 7 (23.7%) and 8 (23.2%) had higher proportions of qualifiers domiciled in London compared to levels 4 (19.1%) and 5 (21.0%).
  • The North East was the region of domicile with the lowest proportion of qualifiers, this is consistent across all types of study. In 2022/23, 4.5% of all achievements were domiciled in the North East. 
  • The South East and North West were the regions of domicile with the highest proportion of apprenticeship qualifiers , with 16.0% and 14.0% of apprenticeship qualifiers respectively.
  • London was the region of domicile with the highest proportion of higher education qualifiers (22.6%).

Subject

There were 570,210 English-domiciled higher-level study qualifiers in England in 2022/23:

  • Business and management was the most popular subject area for qualifiers at levels 4 and 5. This was also true for level 6, but the distribution across subjects at this level was more balanced. Education and teaching, and Psychology were the most popular subject areas for levels 7 and 8 respectively.
  • Just under half (48.5%) of apprenticeship achievements were in Business and management. Business and management accounted for 16.3% of all higher level qualifiers.
Go to top

Help and support

Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.

Official statistics

These are Official Statistics and have been produced in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

This can be broadly interpreted to mean that these statistics are:

  • managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
  • meet identified user needs
  • produced according to sound methods
  • well explained and readily accessible

Find out more about the standards we follow to produce these statistics through our Standards for official statistics published by DfE guidance.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Higher Level Learners in England statistics and data:

HE Participation and Provider Statistics Team

Email: he.statistics@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Gemma Selby

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

Public enquiries

If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:

Telephone: 037 0000 2288

Opening times:
Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5pm (excluding bank holidays)