The countries with the most students at Welsh Universities

1 November 2024

Owain James

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These are the three countries which sent the most students to Welsh universities in the 2021/22 academic year:

1. China = 4,745 students enrolled

2. India = 4,595 students enrolled

3. Nigeria = 2,330 students enrolled

Compared to the top EU country, Poland, which had 605 students attending Welsh universities these numbers are much greater.

It is the same story UK wide, the only difference is that the number of students from China and India are much closer in Wales.

Of course, these countries have extremely large populations – so you would expect high rates of students from these places.

But if that was the only factor in play, you would expect the USA to come before Nigeria.

There are a couple of other important factors worth noting.

– These countries have been impacted (to various degrees) by British imperialism, and with this comes a strong awareness of the British education system.

– These countries have large, developing economies where there are enough wealthy students to afford high tuition fees. However, since a lot of the wealth in these countries has been generated more recently, their universities perhaps do not have the same reputation for quality thatthe UK’s historic institutions possess.

However, this last point is certainly changing – and while I think these countries currently sit in a liminal space where the education in Britain is still highly valued, will this be the case as their own universities develop?

If education is currently a global export for Wales, will people keeping buying the product?