Numbers and demographic characteristics of UK social work students over time

Abstract

Although the numbers and demographic characteristics of social work students are published annually by workforce regulators in each of the four UK nations, these have not before been brought together to form a UK-wide picture, over time, and allow some comparison between the four nations. This article does that, using individual-level data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency, from 2007/8 to 2021–2. The analysis found the well-known picture of a higher proportion of female students, older students and ethnic minoritized students on social work programs, compared with all nonsocial-work courses. Perhaps less well known is the higher proportion of disabled students and students from low-HE-participation neighborhoods on social work programs than nonsocial-work. Comparing the four nations, there was more similarity between them than difference.

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