Indian students are second only to Romanians on a list of international students most likely to be employed in England and Wales, Census 2021 data released by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows.
Indian students in England and Wales constitute the largest population at 11.6 percent of over 3.7 lakh international students followed by China (11.2 percent), Romania (9.5 percent) and Nigeria (5.3 percent).
“Romania (21.4 percent), India (11.9 percent), Nigeria (7 percent), Poland (6.1 percent) and Italy (4.0 percent) were among the top 10 countries of birth for international students in employment. Looking at England and Wales separately, the trend remains broadly the same,” the ONS said.
ONS defines an international student as someone who is a usual resident in England and Wales in full-time education, non-UK-born, non-UK passport holder, aged 17 years or over upon most recent arrival in the country, and aged 18 or over on the Census Day.
Census 2021 estimated that in England and Wales, there were more than 24 lakh people aged 18 years and over in full-time education. Of this, 70.7 percent were UK-born, 9.7 percent were EU-born and 19.6 percent were non-EU-born.
It means nearly three in 10 people in full-time education, aged 18 or above, were non-UK-born. However, this overall estimate may include those studying at boarding schools or in further education and people who are nonUK-born but UK passport holders, ONS said.
A significantly higher proportion of EU-born international students were employed (47.1 percent), compared with non-EU-born (24.6 percent).
Some of this will be explained by EU citizens historically having a right to work in the UK. A higher proportion of EU-born international students were in employment in England (47.5 percent) than in Wales (36.7 percent).
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