As I outlined in an earlier blog, my summer internship involved recording and visualizing UCL student data transcribed from Annual Reports and Calendars. This blog outlines some of the most interesting findings, examining students by gender and exploring changing trends in the number of students from two selected regions of the world.
Overall trends in UCL student numbers
Missing data on the total number of students appeared in both the Annual Report and the Calendar. On Georgina’s advice, I merged the Calendar data into the Annual Report data, filled in the gaps, and came up with a more complete graph, as shown in Fig.1.
As a result of the outbreak of the Second World War (1939-1945), the total number of students dropped significantly to just 858. Prior to this UCL's total student population had remained above 3,000 for 15 years. As you can also see, a very rapid growth in the total number of students started around 1984, the entire curve has become steeper than ever before. From about 500 students in the 1820s, we have nearly 50,000 in the 2020s!
Students from East Asia: China, Japan and Hong Kong
Looking at East Asia, trends in the number of students from China, Hong Kong, and Japan experienced fluctuations in the twentieth century. In 1911, because of dissatisfaction with the corrupt governance of the Qing Dynasty, foreign invasions, social injustices, and modern ideologies, the Xinhai Revolution erupted, giving impetus to China's desire to seek democracy and modernisation. Fig.2 shows a corresponding drop in the number of students from China during the years 1911 to 1912. During the period of the First World War(1914-1918), students from China also sustained decline. From 1919 to 1936, from the May Fourth Movementonwards Chinese students were inspired to seek education in the West in order to be exposed to modern education and knowledge and to push China towards modernisation and internationalisation. A significant increase in the number of UCL students from China occurred during this period.
Meanwhile, in 1929 Japan experienced the Great Depression alongside Western nations, which helps explain why the number of UCL students from Japan decreased after 1929. Another historical event affecting students coming from both China and Japan was the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), a military conflict caused by China resisting Japanese invasion and expansion. However, in 1949, an important turning point emerged - the victory of the Communist Party over the Kuomintang, leading to the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The first peak of the number of UCL students from China after the war appears in this period.
Hong Kong was ruled by Britain from 1842 until its return to China in 1997, although it was occupied by Japan during the Second World War. This colonial relationship meant that many Hong Kong residents had access to British educational institutions and often pursued higher education in the United Kingdom. In particular, the economic boom in Hong Kong after the war strengthened the trend towards closer ties between Hong Kong and the British Empire, and as shown in the graph, the number of UCL students from Hong Kong increased dramatically from 1954 onwards.
The figures for the number of UCL students from East Asia has again changed drastically today. Based on Student Statistics, between 2020 and 2021, the number of students from China at UCL grew to 12,935. The number of students from China has experienced a rapid growth due to multiple reasons and the high tuition fees paid by Chinese student have become one of the main financial sources for UK universities.
East and West Africa
Another area of interest is the variation in the number of students coming to UCL from parts of Africa, including Nigeria, British East Africa, and West Africa. It is important to note that although Nigeria is part of West Africa, the data on the number of students in the two regions in the Annual Report are provided separately.
Different regions in West Africa were colonised by European countries from the late 19th century until the mid-20th century, including Nigeria, which was ruled by Britain until it won independence in 1960. Growing demand for overseas higher education led to considerable increase in the number of students from Nigeria at UCL, peaking in the years after independence. However, in 1967 there was the Nigerian Civil War, which in turn resulted in a decline in the number of students studying in Britain.
East Africa was under British rule until 1960 and included countries such as Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. British East Africa was involved in both the First and Second World Wars. After 1960, the countries of East Africa gradually began to gain their independence. Notably, Jomo Kenyatta, the first president of Kenya, was to officially enrol at UCL in 1934. He is one of UCL's famous alumni to date.
Summary
The blog attempts to recognise and identify the reasons and characteristics behind the trends through charts and data collected from Annual Reports and Calendars, combined with national and historical contexts. It is worth noting that there is a lot of missing and possibly inaccurate dates and the charts on this blog were created using Excel rather than more specialised tech software and therefore may not be completely accurate.
Further reading