The figure was 9,461 higher than a year earlier and has increased more than 86-fold since the 2010–2011 academic year, when only 616 students in this age group were enrolled.
The number of students aged 40 and above passed 20,000 in the 2022–2023 academic year, rising to 36,113 in 2023–2024 and 44,022 in 2024–2025.
The latest figure also represents an increase of 52,867 students compared with 2010–2011.
The statistics show a sharp increase in the number of older students over the past decade. The figure rose from 170 in 2015–2016 to 174 in 2016–2017, before climbing to 2,142 in 2017–2018 and 7,004 in 2018–2019.
It then reached 9,751 in 2019–2020, 10,110 in 2020–2021 and 10,531 in 2021–2022.
The number has continued to grow rapidly since then, reaching 20,247 in 2022–2023, 36,113 in 2023–2024, 44,022 in 2024–2025 and 53,483 in 2025–2026.
The data indicate that the rise has been particularly pronounced since 2022, with the number of students aged 40 and above more than doubling between the 2022–2023 and 2025–2026 academic years.
