International students accounted for most of the growth in full-time students last year. Their numbers rose 25,500 between 2017/18 and 2018/19. Domestic student numbers rose just 9,600 last year, a strong performance in light of the relatively small cohort of 18-year-olds.

This year’s growth in applications is also due mostly to overseas interest. Undergraduate applications from non-EU countries rose 9.6% in 2020, an additional 7,790.

For some nationalities, demand has been growing for a long time. The number of Chinese students studying full-time in the UK has grown 10% per year on average since 2008/09, reaching 115,600 last year. UK universities now have more students from China than from either Wales or Scotland. Demand from the US is lower but rising steadily, with 54% growth over the last decade.

For other nationalities demand has only picked up more recently. The number of full-time students from India rose 35% last year, having also risen 22% the year before. But that follows years of decline: Indian student demand for UK universities peaked in 2010/11, when they numbered 33,700. This reversal may be due partly to a change in immigration rhetoric. In September 2019, the UK Government changed the law to allow international students to remain in the UK for two years after graduating, up from just four months previously. This now makes it one of the most generous post-study work visa systems in the world: in the US and Australia, for example, graduates can only remain up to 18 months. Early indicators from university application numbers suggest this may reverse the decline in student demand from some countries.

Preference for purpose-built

Received wisdom is that international students are more likely than domestic students to live in PBSA. Our analysis of new data from HESA confirms this: overseas students are 60% more likely to live in purpose-built student accommodation than domestic students.

Chinese students are particularly keen on living in purpose-built accommodation. Accounting for university choice, they are 124% more likely to live in PBSA than domestic students. Students from India are also twice as likely to live in halls as those from the UK. Students from China and India account for 8% of full-time students but 16% of students living in purpose-built accommodation.

This means we can expect to see ever more demand for PBSA as international student numbers continue to grow. UCAS applications from Chinese students increased 24% between 2019 and 2020; applications from Indian students rose 23%.