Student enrolments in Business & Management studies 2018/19- our latest report

Our analysis of the newly released HESA student enrolment dataset for 2018/19 highlights the latest trends in enrolments for Business & Administrative Studies courses. This briefing offers an overview of the findings by broad student domicile and level of study (undergraduate and postgraduate courses).

We find that overall enrolments for Business & Administrative Studies grew for the third consecutive year, which reinforces the positive reversal of the downward trend that had been in place since 2012/13. Total enrolments for business schools remain 1% below the peak of 363,860 seen in 2011/12 before the changes to the student visa regulations and the increase in tuition fees for UK/EU students.

In 2018/19, enrolments grew to 358,470 from 342,970, a proportional increase of 5%. Only two other subjects recorded larger proportional growth in enrolments in the last year: Computer Science (+7%) and Veterinary Science (+7%). Students from non-EU countries continue to make up a large share of total enrolments in Business & Administrative Studies (29%) with the proportion unchanged from last year.

The UK’s departure from the EU is yet to have an adverse impact on business school enrolments at undergraduate level, with enrolments from EU countries increasing 7% in the last year which offsets a 2% decline in EU enrolments at postgraduate level. Overall enrolments from the EU increased by 4% since 2017/18.

Compared to last year there was a 4% increase in the number of students enrolled from the UK and this is the fourth consecutive year in which UK enrolments have grown, with increases observed for both undergraduate and postgraduate study. However, the total in 2018/19 remains 4% below the high of 233,335 recorded in 2011/12.

Business & Administrative Studies remains the most popular subject at UK universities. It is still the case that 1 in 7 undergraduate students are enrolled on a business or management course (15%), increasing to 1 in 5 for postgraduate students (19%). Around 1 in 3 of all non-EU international students are enrolled on a business school course.

Read and download the full data and analysis here.