HE Linguistics students in the UK, 2002/3 to 2004/5

The data comes from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) Student Records of individual enrolments at HE institutions, extracting subject group Q1 Linguistics. Please note that the accuracy of the data depends on how individual institutions code and report their figures to HESA.

The figures represent headcounts of all students, across all years of study, registered on a higher education programme that includes studying linguistics as a single honours, major honours, one of a joint double, one of a triple or as a minor subject combination. This includes students combining more than one area of linguistics as well as those studying linguistics with another discipline. In addition, both UK domiciled and overseas students are included in the data as well as part time and full time study.

In 2002/3 HESA introduced a new subject classification called the Joint Academic Coding System (JACS). Unfortunately, as a consequence of these changes, subject data from 2002/3 is not comparable to previous years. We have therefore presented data for the past 3 years only. 2005/6 data is on order from HESA and will be available shortly.

Note: rounding strategy
All data to be published needs to be rounded according to the HESA rounding rule for published figures (as a consequence, for published data the sum of figures in a row or column rarely matches the total shown precisely). Percentages are not affected and can be left as shown in these tables, calculated on the raw data. 

Total HE Linguistics students

Table 1:  Number of linguistics students by level of study

All students UG and PG
Level of Study	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	% change from 2002-3 to 2004-5	
Undergraduate 					
First degree	3830	3980	3745 *	-2%	
Other UG 1	310	315	595	+92%	
Postgraduate					
Higher degree taught 	1235	1615	1475	+20%	
Higher degree research	695	860	830	+20%	
Other postgraduate 2	100	95	45	-54%	
					
TOTAL	6180	6860	6700	+8%	
					
Total HE students 3	1,741,335	1,778,515	1,796,130	+3%	

1. Other Undergraduate includes qualification aims below degree level and in the linguistics data mainly consists of Institutional UG credit courses and other UG diplomas and certificates.
2. Other postgraduate includes PG diplomas, certificates and professional qualifications.
3. Open University students are excluded from the above table due to changes in their reporting across the years.

* A change in the numbers or reporting of students at Newcastle University resulted in a decrease of nearly 500 students for 2004-5. In 2002-3 and 2003-4 nearly 500 students at Newcastle were doing BA Combined honours (triple) Q1 Linguistics with Q2 Comparative Literary studies with Q3 English. No students of this type were recorded in 2004-5.

UNDERGRADUATE FIRST-DEGREE 
Linguistics students in the UK

•	The majority of first-degree UG linguistics students are studying full time (96%), are of UK domicile (93%) and are female (78%).
•	Only a third of all first-degree linguistics students are studying single honours linguistics, the majority are combining linguistics with another subject (Table 2).
•	The most popular other disciplines of combination are Foreign Languages and English. Communications and Social studies (including Psychology) are also quite commonly combined with the study of Linguistics.
•	See Table 3 for a regional breakdown of first-degree linguistics students in the UK. Institution breakdowns are also available in a separate document.

Table 2: UG first-degree linguistics students by BALANCE of linguistics in degree

UG first-degree students only
	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	
				
Single	31%	31%	33%	
Joint double	35%	37%	42%	
Major/ Minor	17%	18%	21%	
Triple	15%	15%	4% *	
				
TOTAL	3830	3980	3745	

* A change in the numbers or reporting of students at Newcastle University resulted in a decrease of nearly 500 students for 2004-5. In 2002-3 and 2003-4 nearly 500 students at Newcastle were doing BA Combined honours (triple) Q1 Linguistics with Q2 Comparative Literary studies with Q3 English. No students of this type were recorded in 2004-5.

Table 3: UG first-degree linguistics students by REGION

UG first-degree students only, ordered by highest on 2004-05 figures
	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	
				
Yorkshire & Humberside	21%	17%	21%	
North West	11%	13%	16%	
London	12%	12%	14%	
Eastern	11%	11%	13%	
South East	9%	9%	11%	
Scotland	5%	6%	7%	
Wales	6%	6%	6%	
North East *	17%	18%	5% *	
South West	4%	4%	3%	
Northern Ireland	1%	2%	3%	
West Midlands	2%	2%	2%	
East Midlands	-	-	-	
				
TOTAL	3830	3980	3745	

* A change in the numbers or reporting of students at Newcastle University resulted in a decrease of nearly 500 students for 2004-5. In 2002-3 and 2003-4 nearly 500 students at Newcastle were doing BA Combined honours (triple) Q1 Linguistics with Q2 Comparative Literary studies with Q3 English. No students of this type were recorded in 2004-5.

POSTGRADUATE 
Linguistics students in the UK

•	HESA data indicates there has been some increases in PG linguistics students over the past few years. Nearly two-thirds of all post-graduate linguistics students are on a taught PG programme. (Table 1, page 1).
•	Half of all PG linguistics students are overseas students from countries outside the EU, 17% are from EU countries and only a third are UK domiciled students.
•	About two-thirds of PG linguistics students are female. 
•	See Table 4 below for a regional breakdown of PG linguistics students in the UK. Institution breakdowns are also available in a separate document.

 
Table 4: PG linguistics students by REGION

PG students only, ordered by highest on 2004-05 figures
	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	
				
South East	20%	21%	18%	
Eastern	16%	16%	18%	
North East	8%	10%	13%	
London	11%	11%	12%	
North West	12%	11%	11%	
West Midlands	10%	8%	9%	
Yorkshire & Humberside	6%	6%	7%	
Wales	7%	6%	6%	
Scotland	4%	4%	4%	
East Midlands *	5%	8%	1%	
Northern Ireland	1%	1%	1%	
South West	0%	0%	0%	
				
TOTAL	2035	2570	2355	

*  Drop of about 200 students in East Midlands, check institutions for possible explanation of reporting or coding change?