Ups and downs

The Higher Education Statistics Agency publishes figures on last year’s students and what they studied

The annual release of statistics on student entrants and qualifiers has become as much of an event for politicians as it is for university planners.

Who attends UK universities, what they study and what kind of qualification they leave with is seen as having implications for everything from Brexit (are fewer European Union students enrolling?) to British competitiveness (are enough people studying science?) to the health service (what about the pipeline of medics?).