Towards a typology of student migration: Illustrations from student record data for the United Kingdom

Around two and half million people were attending an institute of higher education in the United Kingdom in the 2010/2011 academic year, which equates to around 4.1% of the total population. Surprisingly, given the importance of higher education very little work has been conducted on the migratory patterns of students attending institutes of higher education in the UK. This paper puts forward a typology that can be used to categorise the different migration transitions that a person can undertake in order to attend a higher educational institution. With the use of the student migration typology and the Student Record Dataset of the Higher Educational Statistics Agency, which contains detailed information on every student recorded as attending an institute of higher education in the UK, illustrations of the migratory patterns of those attending higher education in the UK during the 2010/11 academic year with a focus on the local authority (LA) and county level geography are provided. Using the typology of student migration the data indicate that around 37% of students are student migrants, 9% were local students, while 35% stayed in the LA but studied elsewhere suggesting they distance learn or commute. When analysing LAs; Oxford, Cambridge, Nottingham, Leeds and Sheffield all stood out as areas with large student populations.