There were 699,660 students studying for UK higher education qualifications outside the UK in 2024-25, 7.0% more than a year earlier, and that number now exceeds the 681,430 international students studying in the UK, according to a report from Universities UK International (UUKi) published on 30 September 2026.
The terms around UK TNE students stack up quickly in this report, so definitions first. Transnational education, or TNE, means UK qualifications delivered to students outside the UK, and UUKi is the international arm of the body that represents UK universities.
The report, the 11th in UUKi’s annual Scale of TNE series, counts 183 UK higher education providers delivering transnational education (TNE) in 229 countries and territories. Student numbers are up 36.6% since 2020-21. The figures come from the HESA Aggregate Offshore Record for 2024-25, accessed through Heidi+, and are rounded to the nearest five under HESA’s rounding rules. Further education provision is excluded.
The Gulf is growing fastest among large hosts
The Middle East hosted 103,660 UK TNE students, 14.8% of the total, behind Asia (51.0%) and Europe (16.3%). Within it, the Gulf states account for most of the activity:
- United Arab Emirates: 34,735 students, the sixth-largest host worldwide, up 24.6% on 2023-24 and 109.4% over five years. The UAE also hosted the largest population of students at UK overseas campuses, at 15,470.
- Saudi Arabia: 24,735 students, eighth-largest host, up 12.4% on the year and 62.5% over five years.
- Oman: 16,380 students; Kuwait: 11,490; Bahrain: 5,405, up 42.5% over five years; Qatar: 3,955.
Among the 20 largest hosts, only Nigeria (up 39.7%) grew faster than the UAE in 2024-25. Mainland China remained the largest host with 96,100 students, followed by Sri Lanka (69,445), Malaysia (47,785), Egypt (39,875) and Greece (35,295).
India fell before the campus wave
India hosted 13,710 UK TNE students in 2024-25, 9.6% fewer than a year earlier, making it the fourth-largest host in South Asia. South Asia as a whole had 124,500 students, up 76.9% since 2020-21. The report expects the trend in India to reverse.
Recent expansion of TNE in India is expected to lead to a return to growth in future data cycles.
Universities UK International, The scale of UK higher education transnational education 2024-25
The 2024-25 figures predate the UK campuses now on the University Grants Commission’s list of foreign higher educational institutions, including the University of Southampton in Gurugram, the University of Liverpool in Bengaluru, and the universities of Bristol, York and Aberdeen in Mumbai. The report does not discuss India’s regulations for foreign campuses or Gulf branch campus policy.
By type of provision, partnership arrangements with local institutions accounted for 489,495 students (70.0%), distance learning for 163,780 (23.4%) and overseas campuses for 46,385 (6.6%). Partnership provision grew 51.4% over five years, overseas campuses 30.3% and distance learning 6.8%. Undergraduates made up 485,410 students, taught postgraduates 205,660 and research postgraduates 8,595. The report counts students only; it gives no figures for income.
UK TNE students: the UUKi count and the money
The income gap in the report can be partly filled from government statistics. The Department for Education’s latest estimates of education-related exports, published on 2 July 2026 and covering the 2024 calendar year, put revenue from transnational education activity at £3.6 billion, up 17.1% from £3.1 billion in 2023. TNE accounts for 9.9% of a total export estimate of £36.7 billion, of which higher education contributes 72.4%, worth £26.6 billion.
The two series measure different things. The report counts UK TNE students: Universities UK International makes clear that its series measures transnational education by student numbers, not by fee income. Setting the DfE revenue estimate against the headcount, across the two series’ different periods, works out at roughly £5,000 of export revenue per offshore student, by TED’s calculation. The DfE also cautions that its method changed in 2025 and that figures from 2021 onwards are not directly comparable with earlier years.
The strategy target has been passed early
The UK government’s International Education Strategy, first published in March 2019, set two ambitions for 2030: education exports of £35 billion a year, and 600,000 international students hosted in the UK each year. On the DfE’s 2024 estimate of £36.7 billion, the export target has been passed six years early. The 681,430 students counted onshore in the UUKi report keep the second ambition above its line as well.
The strategy, updated in February 2021, treats TNE as one of the export streams that the target rests on, alongside tuition and living costs paid by students who come to the UK. The numbers need careful handling when read together: the DfE series runs on calendar years and measures money, while the UUKi series runs on academic years and measures people, so neither can be divided neatly into the other.
The export figures now sit alongside an offshore headcount moving in the same direction: the count of UK TNE students, Universities UK International says, has grown 36.6% since 2020-21 and exceeds the onshore count for the first time in this report.
What it means
TED analysis:
- For finance directors: headcount parity between offshore and onshore students is not revenue parity. The report gives no income data, and 70% of TNE students are taught through partner institutions, so boards should not treat TNE growth as a like-for-like replacement for onshore recruitment.
- For Gulf regulators and investors: the UAE alone accounts for about a third of all students at UK overseas campuses (15,470 of 46,385, by TED’s calculation), and the six Gulf states together host 96,700 UK TNE students. The region is where UK universities are building physical presence, not just partnerships.
- For India watchers: the first student numbers from UK campuses that opened in India in 2026 will appear only in later data cycles. The 2024-25 fall in India is a baseline, not a verdict on the new campus model.
- For partners and suppliers: with 70% of TNE delivered through partnerships, demand is concentrated on local partner institutions, quality assurance and student services rather than on wholly owned campuses.
