The number of UK education providers offering transnational education globally grew in 2018/19, although the total number of students enrolled with UK institutions declined by 26,880.
A total of聽666,815 students in 226 countries joined聽TNE programs at 142 UK higher education providers in 2018/19. China hosted the most students for the academic year with 78,175 students, ‘The Scale of UK Higher Education Transnational Education 2018-19’ highlighted.
“It is fantastic to see more UK institutions delivering UK TNE than ever before”
For the second year running students enrolling on TNE courses declined, however, student number grew when聽the three main providers of distance, flexible and blended TNE were excluded from statistics.
The report noted that “the gap between large and small TNE providers is closing”, while numbers of students enrolling with聽Welsh and Scottish providers are growing faster when compared to providers in Northern Ireland and England.
TNE students at聽, the and make up聽49.6% of numbers. Excluding these three providers, numbers of TNE students grew from 302,755 in 2014/15 to 336,375 in 2018/19.
“At a time when travelling across the world to enrol in a degree program has been thrown into question, it is fantastic to see more UK institutions delivering UK TNE than ever before,” said director at 聽Vivienne Stern.
Provision is diversifying beyond a聽concentration of “relatively limited number of providers”, the report added, with three new UK聽providers reporting TNE students for the first time in 2018/19, and an additional five reporting more than 1,000 students.
While聽student numbers in providers reporting more than 10,000 students fell by 7.5% year-on-year, these statistics point “to a widening of the聽鈥榣ong tail鈥� and a progressively more even distribution of student numbers among providers”, researchers noted.
Between聽2014/15 and 2018/19 students on courses offered by Welsh providers increased聽by 11,270 students (+59.3%) and Scottish providers rose by聽4,460 students (+11.7%)
Types of provision that students were opting also changed in 2018/19, with the number of students registered at an overseas partner organisation decreasing by 38,095 (-9.6%) since 2014/15.
Over the same time period, total numbers studying via聽collaborative provision increased by 29% 鈥� almost 37,000 students 鈥� and those at聽overseas campuses rose by 6,235 (27.4%).
Students in distance, flexible and distributed learning remained stable at around 120,000 (-0.1%) and students in other arrangements decreased by 3,080 (-35.9%) since 2014/15.
Stakeholders have previously called for TNE to be a of finding聽flexible, scalable, relevant, non-colonial models of engagement going forward.
Overall, student numbers in Asia and the Middle East peaked in 2016/17, but when the three top providers are excluded, statistics show that over the past five years TNE students in Asia have increased by聽22,135, while the EU has risen by聽16,140.
“At UUKi, we鈥檙e passionate about opening up UK higher education opportunities to those outside the UK, and the proportional increase seen in collaborative provision is reflective of the strong links UK universities continue to foster with international partners,” Stern added.
UUKi will host its annual 聽in February 2021.
