While the United Kingdom has always seen high international student demand, student mobility towards the UK has been reduced in recent years. The dependants policy change, the Graduate Route review, and increased international student fees all weakened student flows to UK institutions in 2024.
Despite these challenges, international student interest in the UK is also on the rise. In fact, in our Fall 2024 RP Pulse Survey, the UK ranked as the second most attractive study destination, surpassing Canada amidst a year of Canadian policy changes. With student interest towards destinations like Canada and Australia falling, UK institutions—and specifically UK universities—have an opportunity to reverse year-over-year declines and make 2025 a year of growth.
That’s why today, we’re taking a close look at new international undergraduate trends at UK universities, based on the latest University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) data release. We’ll dive into which undergrad populations are growing at UK universities, the challenges these universities face due to the 2023 dependants policy, and how UK institutions can capitalize on student demand shifting away from Canada and Australia.
Key Insights at a Glance
- The number of new international students accepted for undergraduate studies at UK universities dropped by 17% from 2020 to 2024.1
- Since Brexit, undergrad student populations from the EU have declined substantially, while the 2023 dependants policy change weakened undergrad demand from previously growing student populations including Nigeria, Pakistan, and India.
- Chinese students accounted for nearly 25% of all international student undergrad approvals at UK universities in 2024.2
Undergrad Acceptances for International Students Continue to Slowly Decline
As we observed in our analysis of August’s UK Home Office data, new international student populations in the UK have broadly declined since mid-2023. However, when it comes to the number of international undergraduate students at UK universities, weakened demand is a longer-term trend.
In fact, new international undergraduate admissions at UK universities were 17% lower in 2024 than they were in 2020:
From 2020 to 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, new international undergrad acceptances fell by around 20%. After a small (4%) rise in 2022, international undergrad volumes slowly decreased by around 1% in both 2023 and 2024. This limited recovery and trickling decline mean that in 2024, international undergrad acceptances hit their second lowest figure in the past decade.
For the year ending June 2024, the UK issued over 432,000 sponsored study visas to main application international students, according to UK Home Office data. That represents a decline of 13% from the previous year.
Brexit a Leading Cause of International Student Population Drops
The leading cause of these declines can be traced back to the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU) in 2020.
Since Brexit introduced new barriers for students from EU countries to study in the UK, fewer of these students have pursued undergrad courses in the UK each year:
While Brexit nearly coincided with the start of the pandemic, international undergrad volumes from non-EU countries actually rose in 2020 and 2021, hitting their peak in 2022. By contrast, new EU undergrad students fell by 57% over the same period. Additionally, the EU figure is largely buffered by growing interest from Irish students. Across all other EU nations, new undergrad acceptances at UK universities dropped by 70% from 2020 to 2024.
Declining Student Populations Among UK International Undergrads
Over the past year, international undergraduate student volumes have been relatively stable. Yet the 1% overall decline in acceptances from 2023 to 2024 obscures some larger shifts among new undergrad populations:
While three of the largest relative year-over-year declines came from EU students—Italy, Germany, and Greece—new undergrad inflows were down across many regions. Of the 162 student populations that saw at least 10 students accepted for undergrad programs at UK universities in 2024, 108 of those (67%) experienced no growth or negative growth compared to 2023. This was comparable to the number of student populations that saw fewer sponsored study visas over the same period.
For some of these student populations, these trends reflect economic factors such as currency fluctuations or declining GDP in a student’s country of origin. Others may be influenced by increased efforts from nearby European destinations such as France and Germany to attract international students.
In our Fall 2024 Student Pulse survey, student interest in studying in Germany nearly surpassed interest in Australian institutions. Students also reported over 60 different destinations beyond the ‘Big Four’ where they are considering studying.
This weaker demand also reflects the UK government’s dependants policy change enacted in May 2023:
Since this policy came into effect, many source markets with high dependant to main applicant ratios have experienced more substantial declines. The two most notable, Nigeria and Sri Lanka, were two of the fastest-declining student populations in the UK overall from 2023 to 2024.
Critically, this revised dependants policy has also affected the number of Indian students pursuing undergrad education in the UK. While new undergrad student volumes from India nearly doubled between 2019 and 2023—helping India surpass Hong Kong as the second largest source market for new undergraduate students at UK universities—their overall volume fell by 4% over the past year. Despite this drop, Indian students still accounted for 8% of all new international undergrads at UK universities in 2024, up from 5% in 2020.
The 2022/23 academic year was a banner year for international enrolment in the UK, with UK institutions hosting nearly 760,000 students. Indian student enrolments led this growth, increasing by 39% from the 2021/22 academic year.
Which International Undergrad Populations Are Rising at UK Universities?
Even with undergrad population declines across various source markets, overall UK undergrad acceptances remained relatively stable in 2024.
This was primarily due to a similar diversity of growing student populations from across Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America:
Türkiye was the largest source of international undergrad growth from 2023 to 2024, with acceptances for Turkish students up 34% year-over-year. This growth helped Türkiye climb into the top ten source markets, surpassing Nigeria, France, and Spain.
Many of the top ten source markets for new international undergrads at UK universities saw modest growth in 2024. In fact, new undergrad acceptances for students from Ireland, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, and Canada hit all-time highs in 2024.
While these growing student populations helped mitigate overall declines, their impact on total new undergrad stability may be short lived. Ireland and Canada have relatively low potential for significant growth in future years, given that they are themselves popular destinations for international students. And, the United Arab Emirates’ Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2023 includes plans to keep domestic students at local universities while attracting more international students as well.
Chinese Students Represent a Quarter of New International Undergrads at UK Universities
Limited growth potential among the top ten source markets coupled with declines across previously growing sources has made UK universities more dependent on their largest new undergrad population: students from China.
The number of new Chinese undergrads accepted to UK universities has climbed significantly over the past decade. In 2015, just over 5,500 Chinese undergraduate students were accepted for courses at UK universities. But by 2022, this number rose to over 16,500, an increase of 200% in just seven years.
While Chinese undergraduates accounted for under 9% of all new acceptances at UK universities in 2015, their share of the total new international undergrad population has continued to rise:
In 2020, Chinese undergrads accounted for more acceptances than the rest of the top five source markets combined. By 2024, nearly one in every four students accepted to a UK university undergrad program was from China.
This long-term growth has provided stability to UK universities throughout the challenges presented by the pandemic, Brexit, and the dependants policy. However, even the strong Chinese student market experiences shifting trends: From 2022 to 2024, the number of new Chinese undergrads accepted into UK undergrad courses dropped by over 10%. With experts forecasting that international student volumes from China will slow in the coming years, this high proportion of students from one source market could expose UK universities to higher volatility.
Global Policy Shifts Create New Opportunities for UK Universities
Although UK universities face challenges around diversifying their international student populations, they may be at the precipice of renewed opportunity in 2025. International student interest in studying in the UK is on the rise, and UK universities continue to rank as some of the top post-secondary institutions in the world.
By leveraging this momentum, UK universities are poised to attract students who are reconsidering their study abroad options in a landscape of policy changes. Both Canadian and Australian universities have international student caps for 2025, and these countries’ post-study work visas (Temporary Graduate in Australia and Post-Graduation Work Permit in Canada) have become more restrictive. Meanwhile, the preservation of the UK’s Graduate Route means that international graduates from UK institutions still enjoy strong post-graduation work opportunities.
In our recent Fall 2024 Student Pulse survey, the potential of securing a post-graduation work visa was the second most important factor students reported considering when choosing where to study abroad.
Moving forward, universities in the UK should lean into their strengths to increase diversity and attract international undergraduates. Their prestigious reputation, high-quality education, and historic campuses already work in their favour. Now, UK institutions can also promote their relative policy stability, with the UK’s new Labour government promising to continue to welcome international students and support the Graduate Route.
While the years ahead will not be without challenges for universities in the UK, institutions that are responsive to shifting student demand and who understand increased student mobility in emerging markets can increase campus diversity and attract more international undergraduates. For more strategic advice and data-backed guidance on how your UK institution can maximize conversion rates and drive student diversity, please contact your Partner Relations Manager. Or, contact ApplyBoard’s Partner Relations team at schoolpartnerships@applyboard.com to start a conversation.
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FOOTNOTES:
1. All data courtesy of the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), unless otherwise noted. All UCAS data referenced herein is based on acceptances to UK university courses. The use of year throughout this article means from 28 days after Level 3 results day in a given year to the same calculated point in the next year.
2. UCAS data is rounded to the nearest 10 for each calculated category, following data compliance protocols. Due to this rounding, summed figures may not remain equal across all categorizations.
