Introduction
These statistics provide a holistic view of higher-level learning across the further and higher education sectors, covering both higher education and apprenticeships at levels 4 and above (opens in a new tab).
The statistics show how higher-level skills provision was organised in 2023/24 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) reforms and the flexible Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE).
The publication presents analysis of the further and higher education sectors after combining two separate data sources:
- The Higher Education Statistics Agency’s (HESA, now part of Jisc) Student and Alternative Student records for higher education providers (HEPs) and,
- The Individualised Learner Record (ILR) data for further education providers (FEPs), formerly collected by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). The ESFA closed on 31 March 2025 (opens in a new tab) and all its activity and functions were moved to the Department for Education (DfE). As the latest statistics available only cover the academic years up to 2023/24, references to ESFA are made throughout this release.
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 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.
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.
Coverage
This release refers only to learners in England studying at 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 2023/24. 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.
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 not mandatory for providers to record information in the ILR on their unfunded learners. There may also be higher-level learning in the private sector that is not recorded in administrative data held by government.
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, the 2022/23 academic year saw a larger number of data quality issues compared to other 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 2023/24 academic year due to continuing complexities in implementing the new data model. The 2023/24 Student record was published in April 2025, 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) 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 impacted timeliness of reporting and additional care should be taken in comparing and interpreting data for academic years 2019/20 and beyond in this release.