All the Russell Group unis which are dramatically dropping in student numbers

So, the fancy Russell Group unis in the UK used to offer more and more places to students each year. But in 2024, the total student numbers at loads of prestiguous Russell Group unis actually shrunk for the first time in several years?!

There are less international students choosing to study in the UK after Brexit. More and more UK students are wondering if going to uni is really worth the effort, since grad salaries have actually fallen in real terms since the pandemic and the rent in uni cities is so extortionately high. Fewer students mean UK unis are making less money from tuition fees than they used to. This isn’t helping several Russell Group unis with their quests to not go bust.

So, here’s a rundown of all the Russell Group unis which dramatically dropped in student numbers last year. These numbers come from the Higher Educatation Statistics Agency (HESA) and the most up-to-date info on each uni’s website.

University of Birmingham

There were 38,710 students kicking about the Uni of Brum campus and obsessing over that weird clock tower back in the 2022/2023 academic year. But, the most recent report on the student population says there are about 35,313 students there now.

Durham University

Durham Uni was getting bigger each year since 2009, but it’s decreased slightly recently. Data from Durham University says there were just over 22,200 students enrolled in the 2021/22 academic year, but 22,130 students in the 2022/2023 year . The uni website says there are 21,588 students there now.

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Durham University says that this change in numbers is due to there being more freshers than anticipated in 2020 and 2021 (because people didn’t do their exams and got inflated A-Level grades). They’re now working to bring the number of students back down to their target of 21,500.

University of Exeter

There are a lot of horse girls within these walls

So, the Exetaaaah students had been multiplying year on year. There were 4,545 more students in 2022 than there were in 2019. But, the student numbers have started shrinking instead.

According to HESA, there were 32,825 Exeter students in 2023. Exetaaaah’s own website puts the number at 29,786 – presumably to account for students who gave up mid-year? In 2024, the total number of students decreased for the first time in five years to 29,549.

University of Glasgow

Glasgow gained students each year for a decade. According to the uni’s website, there were 24,432 students in 2013, then a whopping 35,525 students in 2023. HESA put the number even higher at 39,755 – I guess a lot of students decided Scotland was too cold and dropped out? But the total number of students went down for the first time last year to 33,753.

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)

The number of students at LSE was increasing steadily each year since at least 2017. But in 2024, the total dropped slightly instead. The number of students went from 13,918 in 2023 to 13,717 in 2024.

University of Oxford

The number of students at the University of Oxford has actually been decreasing slightly since 2007. I guess this is scientific evidence that it’s harder to get into Oxbridge now than it used to be. HESA says there were 26,945 students at Oxford Uni in 2023.  The Uni’s website says there are about 26,390 students there now.

University of Sheffield

Tragically it appears Sheffield lacks the funds to do something about this deeply strange-looking building
(Credit: Chemical Engineer via Creative Commons)

The number of students at Sheffield is falling quite drastically, which is one of the reasons for all its current financial woes. There were 31,475 students in 2023. The BBC reported that Sheffield has 2,200 fewer students this year.

University College London (UCL)

UCL says it had 51,058 students in 2023. HESA counted a slightly higher total of 51,810. But UCL’s most recent financial report reveals the number of students have dropped to 49,248.

University of Warwick

HESA counted the Uni of Warwick’s total number of students in 2023 as 29,075. The Uni website says there was the full-time equivalent of 27,293 students. Apparently the number of students at this Russell Group unis dropped last year, and other were the full-time equivalent of 27,044 students in 2024.

University of York

The Uni of York has snowballed over the last decade. They only had 16,105 students in 2012, but now there are 22,740. But in 2024, student numbers decreased slightly for the first time since 2012. HESA counted the number of students as 22,510 in 2023. The Uni of York website says the student headcount that year was 22,755.