The Indian student population is among the top most among nationalities in England and Wales. An analysis released in London notes that 43,175 students are enrolled at such higher educational institutes as per the census conducted in 2021.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) analyses statistics related to the census and releases information across different subcategories. As the online census conducted for England and Wales in March 2021, it found out that 11.6 per cent of the non-UK-born student population are Indians.
The Chinese students follow at the heels with 11.2 per cent and 41,810 being enrolled in these two UK regions. The ONS said that India (11.6%), China (11.2%), Romania (9.5%) and Nigeria (5.3%) are among the top four countries where international students located in England and Wales are born.
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It also noted that one-third of the student population, around 33.9% are in London. After Romanians at 21.4 per cent, Indian students are among those who are most likely to be employed. 11.9% of the student population is employed.
The majority of the Indian students said that English was their main language and the other languages that were recorded in the census are Telegu, Urdu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil and Marathi.
As per the definition of ONS, an international student is an individual who was a usual resident of England and Wales and meets all the other criteria such as being non-UK born, participating in full-time education, non-UK passport holder, is of 17 or above upon the most recent arrival in the UK and aged 18 years or above on Census Day.
An important sub-group of the population of England and Wales consists of international students involved in higher education. One of the main reasons for migrating to the UK is studies and international students contribute to the economy of the country through tuition fees as well as the economy of the communities in which they live.
In November 2022, the ONS collated data from the UK Home Office and revealed that the Indian student population has crossed the Chinese counterparts as the largest cohort of foreign students studying in the United Kingdom for the first time ever.
The figures co-relate with data from the census and mainly focus on the regions of England and Wales and also include characteristics such as employment, housing and country of birth.
At the time of the 2021 census, there were 373,600 non-UK-born, non-UK passport-holding international students in England and Wales with around one-third of them born in European countries and two-thirds of them born in non-EU countries.
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The residence types of students varied by age. Most students aged between 18 to 25 years lived in communal establishments or all-student households while students over 26 years lived in single or multiple-household families.
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Source: The Economic Times
