Postgraduate language students 2006/07 Regional analysis
The data was collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) from their Student Records of individual enrolments at HE institutions. The data was analysed by CILT, the National Centre for Languages.
Data definitions and overall descriptions
- Postgraduate taught (60%) and research student (40%) enrolments across all years of study at all HE Institutions in the UK (not including PGCE students)
- UK, EU and other overseas domiciled students. In 2006/7, 49% of all postgraduate language students were UK domiciled, 22% Other EU and 29% from non-EU countries.
- Full Time (56% in 2006/7)and Part Time (44% in 2006/7) students
- Female (65%) and male students (35%)
- Using headcount measure where all students studying a language as a single, joint, major, minor or triple honours combination are included counted as 1. The majority of postgraduate students are following single honours courses.
Data warnings
- The accuracy of the data depends on how individual institutions code and report their figures to HESA
- Note for the analysis by language in Table 2 and 3 that a very high number of students are coded in the categories Other European and non-European languages which suggests that this code might be used in place of a specific language code, hence unfortunately the individual totals for each language may not adequately reflect the true numbers (i.e. be an under-representation of the true totals).
- All figures are rounded for publishing, hence, the sum of numbers in each row or column rarely matches the total shown precisely. Percentages are calculated on the raw data.
Table1: Trends in total postgraduate language students by region 2002/3 to 2006/7
2002-3 / % / 2003-4 / % / 2004-5* / % / 2005-6 / % / 2006-7 / %North East / 220 / 5% / 280 / 4% / 205 / 4% / 240 / 4% / 265 / 4%
North West / 260 / 5% / 265 / 4% / 290 / 6% / 320 / 5% / 365 / 6%
Yorkshire & Humberside / 560 / 12% / 770 / 12% / 505 / 10% / 785 / 12% / 710 / 11%
East Midlands / 130 / 3% / 155 / 2% / 150 / 3% / 140 / 2% / 140 / 2%
West Midlands / 270 / 6% / 375 / 6% / 290 / 6% / 365 / 6% / 400 / 6%
East / 195 / 4% / 235 / 4% / 215 / 4% / 230 / 4% / 275 / 4%
London / 1170 / 24% / 1640 / 25% / 1075 / 22% / 1800 / 27% / 1710 / 26%
South East / 910 / 19% / 960 / 15% / 660 / 13% / 930 / 14% / 990 / 15%
South West / 395 / 8% / 750 / 12% / 765 / 15% / 810 / 12% / 750 / 11%
Wales / 185 / 4% / 175 / 3% / 195 / 4% / 235 / 4% / 250 / 4%
Scotland / 445 / 9% / 595 / 9% / 440 / 9% / 570 / 9% / 610 / 9%
Northern Ireland / 120 / 2% / 150 / 2% / 140 / 3% / 135 / 2% / 135 / 2%
Total / 4855 / 100% / 6450 / 100% / 4930* / 100% / 6555 / 100% / 6600 / 100%
* Note: Translation studies students are missing in the 2004-5 figures (potential total of around 1,300 PGs).
In addition students following Other PG qualifications are missing from the 2004-5 figures (estimate of around 300-400 total).
Table 2: Postgraduate numbers in 2006/07 (subject and region breakdown)
RegionSubject / North East / North West / Yorks & Humber / East Midlands / West Midlands / East / London / South East / South West / Wales / Scotland / Northern Ireland / Total / %
Translation Studies/Theory / 10 / 65 / 265 / 0 / 105 / 30 / 260 / 180 / 35 / 10 / 125 / 0 / 1085 / 16%
Celtic Studies[1] / 0 / 15 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 40 / 0 / 5 / 20 / 120 / 60 / 70 / 325 / 5%
French Studies[2] / 15 / 20 / 35 / 20 / 20 / 30 / 130 / 90 / 15 / 5 / 30 / 45 / 445 / 7%
German Studies / 10 / 20 / 20 / 10 / 35 / 20 / 60 / 60 / 10 / 5 / 25 / 10 / 280 / 4%
Italian Studies / 0 / 0 / 5 / 0 / 35 / 25 / 50 / 50 / 10 / 0 / 10 / 0 / 190 / 3%
Spanish Studies / 10 / 30 / 25 / 30 / 20 / 15 / 105 / 35 / 10 / 0 / 65 / 10 / 360 / 5%
Portuguese Studies / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 20 / 5 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 25 / 0%
Scandinavian Studies[3] / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 10 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 5 / 0 / 15 / 0%
RussianEastern Europe Studies[4] / 0 / 15 / 10 / 10 / 60 / 10 / 205 / 40 / 10 / 0 / 55 / 0 / 410 / 6%
Other European Languages[5] / 25 / 120 / 120 / 60 / 115 / 60 / 335 / 195 / 490 / 65 / 105 / 0 / 1690 / 26%
Chinese Studies / 65 / 15 / 85 / 10 / 0 / 0 / 65 / 25 / 0 / 0 / 30 / 0 / 300 / 5%
Japanese Studies / 0 / 0 / 105 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 45 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 5 / 0 / 160 / 2%
South Asian Studies / 0 / 0 / 25 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 100 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 125 / 2%
Other Asian Studies / 0 / 0 / 10 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 40 / 75 / 35 / 0 / 5 / 0 / 165 / 2%
African Studies / 0 / 5 / 0 / 0 / 15 / 0 / 45 / 30 / 0 / 0 / 45 / 0 / 135 / 2%
Modern Middle Eastern Studies / 125 / 55 / 10 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 225 / 30 / 125 / 40 / 40 / 0 / 650 / 10%
Others Non-European Languages[6] / 10 / 5 / 0 / 5 / 0 / 50 / 5 / 170 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 240 / 4%
Total / 265 / 365 / 710 / 140 / 400 / 275 / 1705 / 990 / 750 / 250 / 610 / 135 / 6600 / 100%
Table 3: PG language student percentage by region
% share in each region 06/07Language/subject / North East / North West / Yorkshire and the Humber / East Midlands / West Midlands / East / London / South East / South West / Wales / Scotland / Northern Ireland / Total
Translation Studies/Theory / 1% / 6% / 25% / 0% / 10% / 3% / 24% / 16% / 3% / 1% / 12% / 0% / 100%
Celtic Studies / 0% / 4% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 13% / 1% / 2% / 6% / 36% / 18% / 21% / 100%
French Studies / 3% / 4% / 7% / 4% / 4% / 7% / 29% / 20% / 3% / 1% / 7% / 10% / 100%
German Studies / 4% / 6% / 7% / 3% / 12% / 7% / 21% / 22% / 3% / 2% / 9% / 4% / 100%
Italian Studies / 0% / 1% / 2% / 1% / 19% / 13% / 27% / 27% / 5% / 1% / 6% / 0% / 100%
Spanish Studies / 3% / 8% / 7% / 8% / 6% / 4% / 30% / 9% / 3% / 1% / 18% / 3% / 100%
Portuguese Studies / 0% / 7% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 70% / 11% / 4% / 0% / 7% / 0% / 100%
Scandinavian Studies / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 79% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 21% / 0% / 100%
RussianEastern Europe Studies / 0% / 3% / 2% / 2% / 14% / 2% / 50% / 10% / 2% / 0% / 14% / 0% / 100%
Other European Languages / 1% / 7% / 7% / 4% / 7% / 3% / 20% / 12% / 29% / 4% / 6% / 0% / 100%
Chinese Studies / 22% / 5% / 29% / 3% / 0% / 0% / 22% / 9% / 0% / 0% / 9% / 0% / 100%
Japanese Studies / 0% / 1% / 66% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 28% / 1% / 0% / 0% / 4% / 0% / 100%
South Asian Studies / 0% / 0% / 18% / 0% / 2% / 0% / 80% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 100%
Other Asian Studies / 0% / 0% / 7% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 25% / 45% / 20% / 0% / 2% / 0% / 100%
African Studies / 0% / 2% / 0% / 0% / 10% / 0% / 33% / 24% / 0% / 0% / 32% / 0% / 100%
Modern Middle Eastern Studies / 19% / 9% / 1% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 35% / 5% / 19% / 6% / 6% / 0% / 100%
Others Non-European Languages / 3% / 2% / 0% / 1% / 0% / 21% / 1% / 71% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 100%
Total / 5% / 5% / 9% / 3% / 6% / 4% / 28% / 16% / 14% / 2% / 8% / 1% / 100%
CILT, the National Centre for Languages November 2008
[1]Subjects include Ancient/Modern Celtic Studies, Goidelic/Brythonic group of languages, Scottish Gaelic Language/Literature, Irish Gaelic Language/Literature, Manx/Manx Literature, Cornish/Cornish Literature, Welsh/Welsh Literature, Breton/Breton Literature and other Celtic Studies not elsewhere classified.
[2]Subjects include French Studies, French Language, French Literature, French Society/culture and other French studies not elsewhere classified.
[3]Subjects include Scandinavian, Danish, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian and other Scandinavian Studies/Language/Society/Culture not elsewhere classified.
[4]Subjects include Russian, Polish, Czech and other Eastern European Studies/Language/Society/Culture not elsewhere classified.
[5]Subjects include Dutch, Flemish and other European Studies/Language/Society/Culture not elsewhere classified.
[6]Subjects include others in eastern, Asiatic, African, American & Australasian languages, literature and related subjects. American Studies, Australasian studies and related subjects are not included in the present data set.