🇬🇧 GLOBAL STUDENT MOBILITY — 4/7
WHERE ARE BRITISH STUDENTS GOING?
There is an interesting problem with this question:
The UK doesn’t have a single comprehensive national dataset tracking every British student who leaves the country to study.
HESA explicitly notes that it does not collect comprehensive data on UK students who go abroad; UNESCO is the principal international source for comparable outbound mobility data.
And that tells us something important:
British students are much less internationally mobile than the country’s huge inbound international student population might suggest.
Historically, European destinations have been particularly important.
Before Brexit, the UK’s participation in Erasmus+ created a major structured pathway for students to study and train across Europe.
The UK’s planned return to Erasmus+ from January 2027 is therefore significant.
Under the new arrangement, UK students will once again be able to participate in university study, vocational training and other exchanges across the EU, with grants available to help with living costs.
But Britain isn’t only looking towards Europe.
British students also study in:
🇺🇸 United States
🇦🇺 Australia
🇨🇦 Canada
🇮🇪 Ireland
🇳🇱 Netherlands
🇫🇷 France
🇩🇪 Germany
And something else is changing.
As international universities become more English-friendly, British students have more options for studying outside the traditional Anglosphere.
That could make destinations such as:
🇳🇱 Netherlands
🇮🇪 Ireland
🇩🇪 Germany
🇫🇷 France
🇮🇹 Italy
increasingly relevant.
The big question for the next few years:
Will British students become more internationally mobile again?
The return to Erasmus+ could be an important test.
📌 Sources: HESA; UNESCO; UK Government / Erasmus+ arrangements.
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