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 A key part of the character of any university is the students. Most students at UK universities are British, of course, and most are on undergraduate programmes. Over 40% of young people in the UK now go on to university, which means the students come from a wide range of backgrounds and experience.
Overall there are approximately 2,400,000 students in UK universities, and some 545,000 of these are studying postgraduate programmes. Of course, the universities vary very much in size. The largest universities have over 20,000 students (for example, the University of Leeds) while some of the smaller institutions may have only between 2,000 and 5,000 students. The number of postgraduates in the UK has increased by over 20% since 1997.
Overall, the numbers of postgraduate students is generally larger in the ‘old’ universities than in the ‘new’ universities, although the numbers in ‘new’ universities have been increasing much faster than in the ‘old’ universities. By 2003 the ‘old’ universities had 66% of all the UK postgraduate students while the ‘new’ universities had 34%. In 2002/03 the ten universities with the largest number of research students were Cambridge, Oxford, Birmingham, Nottingham, University College London, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle. The ten universities with the most taught postgraduate students were The Open University (all part-time, distance-learning students), Westminster, City, Birmingham, Strathclyde, Leeds, Warwick, London Metropolitan, Manchester Metropolitan and Sheffield Hallam.
The UK has a reputation as a country that welcomes visitors from around the world. It is a multicultural society into which people from a wide range of cultural backgrounds have settled, particularly in the past 30 years. There is increasing understanding and valuing of the contribution that these different groups make to British society and culture. The media, most businesses and most communities reflect the diversity of cultures in the UK. In the communities in which universities are located, therefore, you will find that international students are welcome as part of that diversity, and the community, businesses and public services have long experience of working with people from a wide range of cultures. If you walk around the shopping areas of any British city you will see people from many ethnic backgrounds; you will see shops selling a wide range of foods and goods from around the world and restaurants from many cultural traditions (Chinese and Indian food, for example, are very popular in the UK). All major cities will have a mosque, a Gurdawara and a synagogue as well as Christian churches. In smaller towns, of course, this diversity may be less obvious, and there may not be the range of cultural and faith services.
It would be naïve, of course, to think that there are never issues that international students face because they are recognised as coming from different cultural or ethnic backgrounds. But incidents of ethnic-related crime or abuse are relatively rare in comparison to many other countries, and every university will provide clear guidance if there are localities or particular sorts of behaviour in the city which should be avoided.
All this means that not only will you feel that you are welcome yourself, but also you that you have a real opportunity to get to know not just British culture, but also the wide range of other cultures that are found in the UK today
In 2004 there were approximately 80,000 international students studying a Masters-level programme in the UK and 17,000 studying for a Doctorate. This number has been growing steadily for more than thirty years, and has doubled since 1999. International students now represent over 63% of all Masters students and 34% of all Doctoral students in the UK.
And they come from all over the world, with virtually every country being represented in that international community. Most of the students come from a relatively small number of countries. China is the largest, mainly because it has the world’s largest population, but the biggest providers also include the countries of Western Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
The largest numbers are in the largest universities, but even smaller institutions have significant numbers of international postgraduate students. In 2002/03 (the most recent year for which national data are available) the universities where international students make up the largest proportion of the whole student body were:
• London School of Economics 42%
• Cranfield 32%
• Essex 23%
• University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (now part of the University of Manchester) 18%
• Oxford 16%
• Cambridge 15%
• Imperial College, London 15%
Why come to the UK?
So why do so many international students choose to come to the UK? The precise motivation for choosing will always be highly individual for every student, but overall there appear to be a number of reasons why postgraduates choose the UK to study. The list we give here has been produced by asking international postgraduate students why they chose to come to the UK to study, and it reads a little like an advertisement for British universities!
• There are a large number of universities and higher education institutions which provide postgraduate programmes at Masters and Doctoral level.
• Many of the universities have an international reputation for the quality of their programmes.
• The international research world has a very high profile of UK academics who are researching and publishing in their specialist fields and are therefore well known internationally.
• British universities have a reputation for the high quality of their programmes.
• British universities have actively marketed their programmes to international students over the past two decades.
• British degrees have a good reputation in the employment market, whether that is for jobs in business or the public service sector or in the academic world.
• British universities have a long history compared to many. They have built up strong relationships with national governments, with schools, colleges and universities in many countries, and particularly with those countries that are now part of the Commonwealth.
• English is one of the main international languages of the world, both in the business and academic communities. This means that many potential students find it easier to study here, and also that the experience of studying in English provides an invaluable transferable skill.
• The UK has a reputation for a tolerant, open and welcoming approach to international visitors and students.
• British history and culture is known throughout the world and many students are attracted by the possibility of combining their postgraduate studies with a period living in the UK and experiencing British culture first hand.
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