London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Thousands of students drop out of university as pandemic takes its toll

Thousands of students drop out of university as pandemic takes its toll

New figures show 18,000 students withdrew from courses by February, an increase of more than 4,000 on 2021
Thousands more undergraduates have pulled out of their studies since the start of the academic year, amid suggestions that the pandemic is continuing to take a toll on British universities and students.

New figures from the Student Loans Company show that more than 18,000 students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland withdrew from university courses and stopped receiving loans by February this year, an increase of more than 4,000 compared with the same point in 2021, and 3,000 more than in pre-pandemic February 2019.

The figures cover full-time and part-time students who have notified the Student Loans Company that they have withdrawn, and excludes those who never started their courses or have been suspended.

In England there was a 28% annual increase in withdrawals by the fourth week of February, with the rate increasing as the academic year progressed. Higher education providers in Wales saw a 62% annual increase in withdrawals by late February.

The figures come as lecturers and academics said they were seeing higher rates of absence among their students, as many staff and students continued to be affected by Covid.

The Department for Education (DfE) cautioned that the SLC’s figures were experimental, open to wide fluctuation, and should be treated with caution. It also noted that the 18,321 withdrawals accounted for less than 1.5% of the more than 1 million undergraduates receiving student finance, based on the SLC’s data for the 2021-22 academic year.

Official figures published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) showed that student drop-out rates in 2020-21 were well below those of previous, non-pandemic years.

Just 5.3% of UK students who first enrolled in 2019-20 failed to continue their courses in 2020-21, compared with 6.5% or more in each of the previous five years.

Michelle Donelan, the minister for higher and further education, said: “I have long argued that when it comes to university, getting on is every bit as important as getting in, and that universities must focus on tackling drop-out rates among students.

“That is why it is so greatly welcome to see that for the first time, it is projected over 90% of students will complete a qualification – the highest rate ever recorded.”

Based on the 2020-21 continuation rates, the DfE calculates that just 9.4% of full-time first degree entrants in the UK are projected to leave HE with no award.

The change was particularly marked in Scotland, where non-continuation rates fell from 7% – above England and Wales – to 4.5% in the space of a year.

The Hesa data also showed sharp falls in drop-out rates at some of the worst-affected institutions. The University of Suffolk saw non-continuation rates among school leavers plunge from nearly 25% in 2019 to 13.6% in 2020.

Goldsmiths College, University of London, was unusual in seeing its non-continuation rate of young undergraduates continue to rise, from 10% to 11.6%.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×