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Regional profiles of higher education

We publish a set of regional profiles of higher education (HE). These set out a range of data on the pattern of HE in each of the nine regions in England.

Typically these profiles include:

  • a map showing all the universities and colleges providing HE courses
  • a profile of students' study methods and counts of students by institution
  • characteristics of students: their age, gender and ethnicity; where they come from; what subjects they study; and how they study - full-time, part-time, undergraduate and postgraduate
  • the annual income and funding of each higher education institution (HEI)
  • where students find employment when they graduate from an HEI, and what kind of jobs they take
  • knowledge exchange activities between HEIs and business and the community.

Latest profiles

We are currently preparing equivalent profiles based on 2008-09 and 2009-10 data - these will be published here in due course.

Much of the regional profiles is based on student data taken from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) student record, and the Data Service's Individualised Learner Record (ILR). The 2008-09 data are available below. The downloadable file allows the user to generate their own output of HE student data by: institution (registering and teaching), location of taught provision (region and sub-region), and by the subject, mode and level of study.

(Please note the following file contains macros. You will need to have the security level for macros within Excel set to 'enabled' in order to generate your chosen outputs of HE student data.)

2008-09 HESA student record and Data Service ILR data

[ Download 2008-09 HESA student record and Data Service ILR data as Zip file 3.1Mb ]

Explanatory note on how the data are derived

[ Download Explanatory note on how the data are derived as Adobe PDF 16K | Download Explanatory note on how the data are derived as MS Word 47K ]

2007-08 profiles and earlier

Much of regional profiles 2007-08 is based on student data. These data are available below. The downloadable file provides counts of HE students by institution (registering and teaching), location of taught provision (region and sub-region), and by the subject, mode and level of study.

2007-08 HESA student record and Data Service ILR data (last updated December 2009)

[ Download 2007-08 HESA student record and Data Service ILR data as MS Excel 1.9Mb ]

Explanatory note on how the data are derived (last updated December 2009)

[ Download Explanatory note on how the data are derived as Adobe PDF 39K | Download Explanatory note on how the data are derived as MS Word 14K ]

These data supersede the equivalent data in the following publications, both of which were based on 2006-07 HESA data:

The 2007-08 student data provide the same information that was available in these earlier publications. But they use only one set of data definitions to make things more transparent for the user, and an adjusted methodology to show a more accurate picture of where HE provision is taught. (For these reasons it will not be possible to compare these data directly with those in previous publications.)

Further information

For more information about these data contact Andrew Breeze, tel 0117 931 7492, e-mail a.breeze@hefce.ac.uk, or Laura Davies, tel 0117 931 7419, e-mail l.davies@hefce.ac.uk.

Last updated 8 September 2011