Today, International Students comprise 22% of all HE students in the UK, 40% are postgraduate, and contribute £37.4 billion to the UK economy.China provides by far the largest market, sending almost a third of all non-EU students. Despite this, only 2.3% of all UK professors are Chinese. Chinese academics are also the most underrepresented of all counted ethnic groups in non-SET subjects at 0.9% (Universities UK 2022). 

Other ESEA groups are simply not counted.

As for students, while the Chinese outperform white students in university entrance exams, they still experience a degree-awarding gap, with fewer leaving with good degrees (Advance HE 2022). For further information, see our Academic Mini-Talk Series by Dr Cora Xu and our Resource List. 

We asked a group of students about their experiences in UK universities. We asked them:

What is it like to be ESEA in the UK Universities?

What are the stereotypes we get in UK Universities?

What are the struggles of being ESEA in UK Universities?

If your University was ESEA-supportive, what would that look like?

See their responses in our Studying while ESEA Awareness Videos and Studying while ESEA Toolkit.