University Destinations

With the Gateway system in place, data collection on the university admissions process, from application to final destination, has improved markedly over the past few years. The system includes detailed statistics about offers from universities, and enables higher education (HE) counsellors to search data from six secondary schools. 

Overall, there was greater diversity than previously, with students studying a range of courses across a total of 20 countries. The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and The Chinese University of Hong Kong had three of the largest cohorts of students from ESF schools. This was an indication of the increasing reputation of these institutions worldwide. The United Kingdom, however, remained the most popular destination, with 39% of our students going on to study there. Of these, 64% secured places at a top-30 UK universities, including the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and University College, London. Eighteen percent of students went on to study at a US university – popular choices included Berkeley; the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); Chicago and Cornell. Canadian universities were increasingly popular, with  the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto attracting the largest cohorts of ESF students. 

The chart below shows the most popular universities for ESF graduates in 2011: