According to the Universities UK International (UUKi) and Studyportals recommendations, the UK’s exit from the European Union in early 2020 has alleviated the ability of UK universities to recruit learners from ten important European nations. The "International student recruitment from Europe: the road to recovery" study compiles several data sources including from UCAS, HESA, and UNESCO, alongside details from Studyportals websites.

Limited EU Applications and 1st-year Enrolments:

UCAS data exhibits that from 2020 to 2021, there was:

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  A 37% fall in the figure of applications of EU Undergraduate to UK universities;

  
  


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  A 47% fall in the figure of accepted EU students in to UK universities (linked to lesser EU learners applying in the 1st place).

  
  

These less numbers help in explaining the reason behind the 50% lesser enrollments of 1st-year EU students with United Kingdom universities in 2021-22 as compared with 2020-21.

Dwindling Share of European Learner Interest:

Studyportals data reveals that a 28% fall from 2019 to 2021 has been noticed on the UK courses' pages on its platform, which signifies a significant loss (5.9%) in interest of total European students for the UK. This loss indicates that 'the UK’s market share is now a smaller slice of a larger pie'.

The report finds that a further fall in 1st-year European enrolments is approaching - "Studyportals research finds that students typically start researching their programme options 6–24 months before enrolment, with an average of 15 months before enrolment. With that in mind, we could extrapolate that the low point for European enrolments is likely to manifest in either the 2022–23 or 2023–24 academic years".

Brexit at the Root Cause:

The fall in interest of European students in the UK is mainly attributed to the Brexit's consequences as EU students now need visas and are asked for the same tuition fees as other international students to study in the United Kingdom. This has become more inconvenient and expensive option for European students to pursue higher education in the UK.

In current scenario, several students are exploring other European destinations now such as the Germany, Netherlands, Italy, France, and Ireland. These countries are also offering a great number of English-taught programmes and are highly competitive with the UK, Canada, Australia, and the US. Particularly, the Netherlands and Germany seems to claim great share of the market of European students.

Points To Reverse Trajectory:

While the UK is facing the decline in share of student interest in Europe, the report also shows that further decline is not unavoidable. "Inspite of a sharp drop in market share, the UK retains a lead over other anglophone competitor destinations and has a very strong brand in Europe for online provision, advantages that the UK should now seek to secure and build on".

The international education sector of the UK has recovered faster from pandemic than equivalent sectors in Canada, Australia, and the US, but this is mainly due to surge in enrolments from non-EU markets. UUKi, alongwith Studyportals, is also urging the UK government to dedicatedly rebuild the position of the UK in the prime European markets of France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Germany and to invest sincerely in developing 'high potential markets' including Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland and “speculative markets” such as Portugal, Romania, Greece, and Poland.