Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students were enrolled in courses at agricultural specialist higher education providers in the academic year 2021-22.

The Office for Students (OfS) publishes subject areas by specialism for higher education (HE) providers in England. This can be found here: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/provider-typologies-2022/.

From this the Royal Agricultural University and Harper Adams University were identified as the two specialist HE providers with the primary specialist subject being related to ‘Agriculture, food and related studies’. The total number of student enrolments at these providers during the 2020/21 academic year, according to the Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA), are as follows:

• The Royal Agricultural University – 1,175
• Harper Adams University – 5,135
• Total – 6,310

HESA collects and publishes statistics on enrolments and qualifications obtained at UK Higher Education Institutions. Latest statistics refer to the academic year 2020/21. This can be accessed here: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-52.

Data for the 2021/22 academic year is due to be published on 19 January 2023.