Tertiary students specialising in natural and physical sciences
By whether domestic or international, all tertiary levels, 2016–2025
| Year | Student origin | Number of students enrolled |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Domestic | 26,840 |
| 2017 | Domestic | 25,735 |
| 2018 | Domestic | 25,955 |
| 2019 | Domestic | 25,700 |
| 2020 | Domestic | 26,375 |
| 2021 | Domestic | 27,990 |
| 2022 | Domestic | 26,245 |
| 2023 | Domestic | 25,480 |
| 2024 | Domestic | 24,670 |
| 2025 | Domestic | 24,715 |
| 2016 | International | 5,060 |
| 2017 | International | 5,210 |
| 2018 | International | 5,485 |
| 2019 | International | 5,980 |
| 2020 | International | 5,665 |
| 2021 | International | 5,050 |
| 2022 | International | 4,400 |
| 2023 | International | 4,990 |
| 2024 | International | 5,530 |
| 2025 | International | 6,120 |
Notes
International students are those studying here without New Zealand/Australian citizenship or permanent residence status. Students studying off-shore at tertiary education providers that are registered in New Zealand are considered international students unless they hold New Zealand citizenship.
Data calculation/treatment
These figures present statistics relating to the predominant field(s) of study of students enrolled at tertiary education providers. This data looks at all the courses studied within a qualification to determine a student’s predominant field(s) of study. For example, you might use this data to know how many students are specialising in Information technology.
The Ministry of Education has revised the method used to derive the predominant field of study of students/graduates in tertiary education providers. The same method is now be used for both student enrolments and graduates.
Students are counted in each field of study they enrol in, so the sum of the various fields may not add to the total.
Students are counted in each qualification type/level they enrol in, so the sum of the various levels may not add to the total.
For more information
Inclusions
Data relates to students enrolled at any time during the year with a tertiary education provider in formal qualifications of greater than 0.03 EFTS (more than one week's full-time duration). Data includes those private training establishments that received Student Achievement Component funding, and/or had students with student loans or allowances, and/or Youth Guarantee programmes.
Exclusions
Data excludes all non-formal learning and on-job industry training.
Data provided by
Dataset name
Tertiary Education Participation: Provider based enrolments - The predominant field of study of students at tertiary education providers 2025
Webpage:
https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/tertiary-participation
How to find the data
At URL download file 'Provider-based enrolments: Predominant field of study'.
Import & extraction details
File as imported: Tertiary Education Participation: Provider based enrolments - The predominant field of study of students at tertiary education providers 2025
From the dataset Tertiary Education Participation: Provider based enrolments - The predominant field of study of students at tertiary education providers 2025, this data was extracted:
- Sheet: FOS_ENR.2
- Range:
D6:LU89 - Provided: 27,720 data points
This data forms the table Tertiary Education - Domestic and international students by predominant field of study and qualification level 2016–2025.
Dataset originally released on:
March 2026
About this dataset
These are statistics relating to the predominant field(s) of study of students enrolled at tertiary education providers. This data looks at all the courses studied within a qualification to determine a student's predominant field(s) of study. For example, you might use this data to know how many students are specialising in Information technology.