Question on overseas students from Asia from Jo Stevens MP

Written question answered on Thursday 14 November 2017 

On 11 December Jo Stevens MP (Labour) asked the the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the market share UK Universities currently holds for students studying abroad from (a) India, (b) Pakistan and (c) China.

Answered on 14 December 2017 by Joseph Johnson, Minister of State for Universities: 

The government fully recognises the important contribution that international students make to the UK’s higher education sector, both economically and culturally. Global data on international student destinations is not available in the format requested. However, it is available at the tertiary education level from The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization at the following link: http://uis.unesco.org/en/uis-student-flow . The link also includes further information on what types of education are included in the definition of tertiary education.

This data shows that in terms of overall market share of overseas students studying tertiary level courses, the UK continues to attract the second highest numbers of overseas students (EU and non-EU) after the USA. For Indian and Chinese students it is the third most popular destination and for Pakistani students it is the second.