The number of first-year students from outside the European Union enrolling at UK universities fell by 1 per cent from 2014-15 to 2015-16, according to data released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

Data from the past five years show which countries are sending fewer students to study in the UK.

Despite a large increase in the number of students enrolling from China, a cohort that has grown by 12,500 since 2011-12, enrolments by students from India fell by 13,150 over the same period.

Other notable changes include an increase in students from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia and a fall in students from Saudi Arabia and Nigeria.

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In contrast, the number of students from other European countries enrolling at UK universities for the first time was up by 2 per cent since 2014-15. At the same time UK-domiciled student numbers rose by 1 per cent.

However, although overall EU student numbers are up, enrolments from some countries in particular have fallen over the past five years, Hesa’s data charts show. Since 2011-12, fewer students from Ireland, Germany, Greece, Poland, Cyprus and France are coming to the UK to study.

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But more students from Italy, Spain, Romania and Bulgaria enrolled at UK universities in 2015-16 compared with 2011-12.

Meanwhile, the data on postgraduate enrolments offer the first chance to understand how £9,000 undergraduate fees have affected this market. The first cohort of students to pay £9,000 a year graduated from three-year courses in the summer of 2015. Experts predicted that the burden of undergraduate debt would dissuade these graduates from pursuing a taught master’s qualification.

But the data released today suggest that the number of students enrolling on postgraduate taught master’s in 2015-16 has remained stable.

When postgraduate research course enrolments are taken into consideration, the total number of students pursuing postgraduate courses is 532,975 – a 1 per cent drop since 2014-15.

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Elsewhere, the number of students studying part time continues to fall. In 2015-16, 5 per cent fewer students opted to study in this way compared with 2014-15, and since 2011-12 numbers have dropped by 30 per cent. In 2015-16 less than a quarter of all university enrolments were part-time learners.

Undergraduates in the UK are increasingly choosing to study science subjects. The data show a large increase in the number of first-year enrolments in almost all science degrees, with the exception of the biological sciences. Enrolments in education and history degrees fell.

Also of note is a rise in the number of students gaining a first or upper-second degree. In 2015-16, 73 per cent of students secured these classifications, up from 72 per cent in 2014-15.

holly.else@tesglobal.com