Chinese, Indian and Nigerian students continued to drive the international student population of the UK in the 2021/22 academic year, with the country hosting a total of 679,970 non-UK students.
HESA statistics show that the international student numbers continued to grow, after the country famously hit its 600,000 target for 2030 a decade early.
The 2021/22 figures indicate that total non-EU enrolments rose to 559,825 from 452,225 in 2020/21, while overall EU student numbers fell to 120,140 from 152,905 the previous year.
Looking at first-year students only, EU figures – a cohort of students that lost UK home fee status in August 2021 – plummeted from 66,680 to 31,400 in 2021/22.
