students and education

Over 2.46 million students were registered in UK Higher Education Institutions in the year 2008-09 (HESA) with the majority of those registered for HE courses. Almost 7% of the United Kingdom’s higher education students, some 164,520 (excluding the OU), are enrolled at one of the nine East Midlands universities(2008/09 HESA).

The regions universities range in size from The University of Nottingham (32,925 students) to Bishop Grosseteste University College Lincoln (2,200 students) (2008/09 HESA). With at least one university in each of the five East Midlands counties, and almost five thousand programmes, the region provides an enormous variety of undergraduate and postgraduate opportunities for students.

The regions universities are proving to be increasingly attractive to students. The number of international and EU students coming to the region rose to it’s highest level of 21,890 in 2008/09. The East Midlands region is a net importer of HE students reflecting the valuable impact students perceive in receiving an education from the regions HEIs.

Even during the current global downturn, university graduates are more likely to be employed than non graduates; and graduates earn substantially more over their lifetime than non-graduates.(The future of universities in a knowledge economy, BIS)