FOI_26-273 new courses, international recruitment and AI
Date of response: 05 November 2026
We have now considered your request of 13 October 2026 for the following information:
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following recorded information. I am researching how UK universities are adapting their courses and recruitment to changes in international student demand and to artificial intelligence.
Definitions used throughout:
- "International students" means students assessed as liable for overseas (international) tuition fees.
- "UG" means undergraduate first-degree courses. "PGT" means postgraduate taught courses, such as taught master's degrees.
- "Intake" means a cohort starting in a given month, for example the September 2025 intake.
- "Course" means a degree programme leading to an award, not an individual module.
Question 1. New courses
Please list every UG and PGT course that first took students in the 2024/25, 2025/26 or 2026/27 academic year, and every course already approved to take its first students in 2027/28. For each course, please give:
(a) the course title and award (for example BSc, MSc);
(b) the level (UG or PGT);
(c) the mode (full-time, part-time, online/distance, or blended);
(d) the start month or months (for example September, January); and
(e) the academic year of first intake.
A spreadsheet export from your course records is ideal.
Our response:
Please see accompanying document, our ref: FOI_26-273 Appendix A.
Question 2. International recruitment (whole University)
This question covers all international students across all of the University's UG and PGT courses, not only the new courses in question 1. University-wide totals are all I need; there is no need to break the figures down by course.
For each of the September 2023, September 2024, September 2025 and September 2026 intakes, please give the following, with UG and PGT shown separately:
(a) the number of applications received;
(b) the number of offers made;
(c) the number of offers accepted (or deposits paid, if that is how you record it); and
(d) the number of students who enrolled.
For the September 2026 intake, the figure as at your latest census point or the date of your response is fine; please say which date it is.
If you already hold any of these figures broken down by country of domicile, I would welcome that too, but please do not create a breakdown you do not hold.
Our response:
Please see accompanying document, our ref: FOI_26-273 Appendix A.
Question 3. AI for students
(a) Does the University currently provide all students with access to a generative AI tool (for example ChatGPT Edu, Microsoft Copilot or Google Gemini)?
If so, please name the product and the date access began.
Our response:
Yes. Students have access to CoPilot. Access began in August 2023.
(b) Does any UG course, or the University as a whole, include a compulsory module, unit or training in AI skills or AI literacy? If so, please give its title, which students take it and the year it was introduced, or send the existing description of it.
Our response:
No mandatory cross-university module at this stage.
Question 4. Courses closed
Please list every UG and PGT course that the University stopped recruiting to (closed, suspended or withdrawn) for entry in 2025/26, 2026/27 or 2027/28, giving the title, level and the first year it did not recruit.
Our response:
Please see accompanying document, our ref: FOI_26-273 Appendix A.
Question 5. AI in applications
Please provide a copy of the University's current guidance to applicants, and to admissions staff, on the use of AI in undergraduate applications. If the University uses an AI tool to process or assess applications, please name it and say what it is used for.
Our response:
Please see our webpage: Advice For Applicants and our Admissions Policy - Section 7.6
The University does not use an AI tool for processes or assessing applications.