Population by ethnicity - About - University of St Andrews

In the 2011 census, 86% of the populate of England and Wales identified as White (including ‘Other White’), and 14% identified as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME). In the Scottish census, 96% of the population reported their ethnicity as White (including ‘Other White’), whilst 4% reported their ethnicity as BAME.

It is only compulsory for higher education institutions (HEIs) to return ethnicity data to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) for UK-domiciled students. As such, the benchmarking information and point of comparison (below) only pertains to UK-domiciled students. UK-domiciled students can choose not to disclose their ethnicity.

The proportion of students identifying as BAME in UK HE has steadily increased since the academic year 2003-2004, where figures stood at 14.9%. In 2017-2018, 23.6% of students disclosing an ethnicity self-identified as BAME. In Scotland, those students who identified as BAME accounted for 8.8% of the total.

Findings

The UK-domiciled BAME population at the University of St Andrews (10.9%) is considerably lower than the proportion of HE students identifying as BAME across the UK (23.6%). However, Scotland’s significantly lower BAME representation (8.8%) is a likely contributory factor.

St Andrews is a globally orientated university and has a distinctive demographic profile with over 45% of staff and students being domiciled outside the UK before arriving here. Considering our distinctive demographical profile, a more accurate portrayal of our BAME representation would also include non-UK domiciles. In 2019, we collected ethnicity data from our non-UK domiciled students for the first time. When we include all of our student cohort (UK-domiciled and non-UK domiciled), 20.2% of our student population is BAME.

St Andrews’ students by domicile and ethnicity 2018-2019

A bar graph detailing St Andrews’ students by ethnicity and UK and non-UK domiciled status.

Of St Andrews UK domiciled population, 10.9% were BAME, 0.6% were unknown and 88.5% were White.
Of the non-UK domiciled population 32.5% were BAME, 5.5% were unknown and 62% were White.
In total, both UK and non-UK domiciled students combined, 20.2% are BAME, 2.7% were unknown and 77% are White.

St Andrews’ students by domicile, degree level and ethnicity

In keeping with the distinctive demographic profile of St Andrews, the majority of BAME students in each cohort are non-UK students. The taught postgraduate community has the largest BAME population at St Andrews (35.4%), as compared to the undergraduate (17.9%) and research postgraduate (24.6%) communities. The majority of the taught postgraduate BAME community is comprised of non-UK students (46%).

Undergraduate

Of the UK domiciled population 10.9% are BAME, 0.5% are unknown and 88.6% are White.
Of the non-UK population 29% are BAME, 6.4% are unknown and 64.6% are White.
Of the total undergraduate population 17.9% are BAME, 2.8% are unknown and 79.3% are White.

Postgraduate taught

A bar graph detailing St Andrews’ taught postgraduate cohort by ethnicity and UK domicile status.

Of the UK domiciled population 10.3% were BAME, 0.7% were unknown and 88.9% are White.
Of the non-UK domiciled population 46% were BAME, 0.8 were unknown and 53.2% were White.
Of the total taught postgraduate community 35.4% were BAME, 0.8% were unknown and 63.8% were White.
The taught postgraduate community has the largest BAME population at St Andrews, 35.4%, as compared to 17.9% of the undergraduate population and 24.6% of the postgraduate research community.

Postgraduate research

Of the UK domiciled population, 11% were BAME, 2.4% were unknown and 86.6% were White.
Of the non-UK domiciled population 35.3% were BAME, 5.9% were unknown and 58.8% were White.
Of the total postgraduate research population, 24.6% were BAME, 4.4% were unknown and 71% were White.

Student equality, diversity and inclusion report 2019 Population by ethnicity