In 2020/21, there were 600,000 international students at UK universities, 22% of all HE students. Non-EU students tuition fees made up 17% of the universities’ total income. According to the latest study, from 2020 to 2022, applications from the European Union dropped by around 50%. The results were confirmed in a briefing on student migration to the UK that the Migration Observatory put out at the University of Oxford. Even though the pandemic caused international student enrollment to drop “a little bit,” the paper said that in 2021, a record number of students moved to the UK.

QS research from 2021 found that international students viewed the UK as a “far more appealing” and “welcoming” destination than it had been before the epidemic, and brokers have recently indicated that they intend to place “much more” students in the UK than they did before.

Non-EU Students Migration Data

The independent migration data analyst cited the requirement to apply for visas, higher international student tuition prices, and the inability to access government-subsidized loans as the causes of the decline in EU student applications of almost 50% between 2020 and 2022. UCAS said that the number of approved applications from EU countries would drop from 22,430 in 2020 to 9,820 in 2021. This is a drop of 56 percent.

UCAS reported a 56% drop in accepted EU candidates in 2021, from 22,430 in 2020 to 9,820 the following year. According to the experts, a growing number of European Union students are choosing not to study in the United Kingdom but rather in Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany. 

The report noted that “a rather substantial share of UK institutions’ overall annual income” comes from tuition paid by students from outside the European Union. In 2020/21, non-EU students accounted for 16% of all students enrolled in UK higher education and generated 17% of the total annual income for UK universities.

The money from tuition paid by students from outside the European Union (EU) amounted to just 5% of all funding for UK universities in the 2000–01 school year. At least 98% of non-EU students “left on the schedule for those whose visas expired in the year ending March 2020,” the report said of those who completed their studies in the UK. It also noted that the “limited numbers” of students still in the UK five years after coming and who desire to settle there often take 10 years.

According to the experts, a growing number of European Union students are choosing not to study in the United Kingdom but rather in Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany.