Firm acceptances by overseas students in the UK grew by almost a third in just a year, pointing to a robust recovery for the country’s international education sector. This comes after the industry grappled with different policy changes in 2024.
Return to growth
UK-based student engagement, conversion and retention specialist UniQuest analysed over 40,000 applications in the region and discovered a 31% growth in firm acceptances in January 2025 versus last year. Firm acceptances refer to students who have said a definite yes to their offers.
Acceptances from Indian students, in particular, showed a significant rise, up 11% year-on-year. Similarly, there was a 91% uptick in firm acceptances from Pakistani students year-on-year, underscoring Pakistan’s growing importance as an emerging market for UK institutions. Acceptances from students in Southeast Asia and Africa also contributed to the surge, indicating the sector’s efforts in diversifying international student recruitment.
Notably, UniQuest already picked up on “some late acceleration” for acceptances in September courses. That increase held up – and even grew – at the start of this year, suggesting a steady return to growth.
Another source also reported that international student enrolments made through their service for the January 2025 intake were 27% higher than last year. Meanwhile, issuances of acceptance letters were also up by 14%. Their data showed that the rebound was driven by students from East Africa (+84%), West Africa (+27%) and South Asia (31%).
Programs of interest
Data shows that demand for business and management postgraduate courses grew steeply for the January intake. This demonstrates a resurgence of interest in the traditionally high-recruiting subject areas, which had taken a big hit in 2024.
Demand was also high in computing postgraduate programs focused on AI or data science.
Impact of global policy changes
UniQuest Chief Market and Partnerships Officer Jennifer Parsons believes that the significant upswing in January acceptances in the UK may be due to instability in other major study destinations. Tightening restrictions and changing policies in countries like Australia and Canada are redirecting key markets back to the UK. Nonetheless, the renewed growth in the UK is a positive development for the global international education sector as a whole and attests to the UK’s solid reputation as a destination for high-quality education and postgraduate opportunities.
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