London Facts

What does tertiary education do for London? Not a lot, says one report. In another of our series of regional focuses, THES reporters look for a sense of community within the M25 area.

The region has one of the densest provisions of higher and further education in the UK. Students (about 660,000 for 1995-96) account for 3.7 per cent of the Greater London population.

* There are more than 260,000 full- and part-time HE students - almost 16 per cent of UK HE students.

* The full- and part-time FE student total for 1997-98 for all institutions is projected to be 459,000, 14 per cent of the total UK FE student population.

* There are 12 universities and 60 FE colleges.

* A third of the UK's medicine and dentistry undergraduates and postgraduates study in London.

* The largest proportion (14.3 per cent) of successful HE applicants in 1995 were accepted by the region's institutions.

* 19 per cent of Greater London's full-time HE student population are from overseas. In !995/96 there were 33,430 such students - almost 20 per cent up on the previous year.