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British Students Abroad: EU Countries

Question for Department for Education

UIN 62716, tabled on 1 February 2017

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many UK students have studied in higher education facilities in EU member states in each of the last five years.

Answered on

7 February 2017

Data from The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) shows that there were approximately 13,000 UK students studying higher education courses wholly in other EU member states in 2014. The table below contains estimates for last five years of available data.

Estimated1 total number of internationally mobile students2 from the UK studying higher education courses wholly3 in other EU member states from 2010 to 2014

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

9,000

12,000

11,000

12,000

13,000

Source: http://data.uis.unesco.org/.

1 Estimates are made by the department using UNESCO data

2 UNESCO defines internationally mobile students as those “who have crossed a national or territorial border for the purpose of education and are now enrolled outside their country of origin.”

3 The figures above only include UK students that studied wholly in other EU member states. They do not include those studying on Erasmus and other placement schemes

In addition, an estimated 10,000 UK students studied in EU institutions as part of an Erasmus+ programme in academic year 2013/14. The table below shows estimates for the last five available years of data.

Outgoing UK Erasmus Student Mobility to EU member states from 2009/10 to 2013/14

2009/10

2010/11

2011/12

2012/13

2013/14

8,000

9,000

9,000

10,000

10,000

Source: British Council information held as part of their Erasmus + programme management: https://www.erasmusplus.org.uk/file/1251/download

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