AEI International Student Data YTD July 2008

The year-to-date (YTD) July 2008 AEI International Student Data show there were 459 692 enrolments by full-fee paying international students in Australia on a student visa. This is an 18.9 per cent increase on YTD July 2007. Commencements in the same period grew by 22.4 per cent.  

Nationality

Enrolments

The main source of Australia’s international students is the Asian region. Four of every five (79.5%) international student enrolments at onshore educational institutions were from the Asian region.

Eight of the top ten countries recorded increases in enrolments between YTD July 2007 and YTD July 2008. India recorded the largest increase with 25 026 more enrolments than the corresponding period in 2007, a 47.8 per cent growth. Other top ten markets that grew strongly were China (growth of 20.2%), Nepal (109.0%) and Vietnam (63.5%).

Enrolments from Japan and Hong Kong declined steadily in all sectors. The decline in the Japan market has mainly been in the English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) sector. Significant declines were also noted in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) and higher education sectors. The decline in enrolments from the Hong Kong market has been focussed in the ELICOS, higher education and schools sectors.

Outside the top ten, countries with strong growth include Brazil (26.4%), Sri Lanka (20.9%), Saudi Arabia (116.7%), Colombia (43.7%), Pakistan (32.1%) and Mauritius (57.0%). Other significant markets such as the United States of America (USA) and Taiwan continued to record falls in enrolments. Bangladesh, an emerging market, fell after growth in recent years.

International student enrolments by nationality (top 10 markets), YTD July 2008

Commencements

The growth in the number of commencements between YTD July 2007 and YTD July 2008 was 22.4 per cent. China recorded the largest increase with 12 965 more commencements than the corresponding period in 2007 (a growth of 30%), just ahead of India which recorded 12 464 more commencements (44.3% growth) in the same period.

Commencements from China in the higher education and VET sectors grew by 22.8 per cent and 40.3 per cent respectively. In comparison, growth in commencements from India came mainly from VET (67.3%) and ELICOS (68.3%).

Other top ten markets for commencements to show double digit growth include Vietnam (82.5%), Nepal (64.7%), Brazil (29.1%), Thailand (11.5%) and Malaysia (11.2%). Among the other top ten countries, the Republic of Korea and Hong Kong recorded growth of less than 5 per cent, and the USA experienced a decline in commencements of 5.4 per cent.

Outside the top ten, markets showing strong growth on commencements include Saudi Arabia (118.7%), Mauritius (91.8%), Colombia (33.1%) and Pakistan (26.3%).

International student commencements by nationality (top 10 markets), YTD July 2008

Sector

Higher Education

In YTD July 2008, the highest proportion of international student enrolments were in the higher education sector (38.7%).  Enrolments increased 4.6% while commencements increased 12.0% compared with the corresponding period in 2007.

China, India and Malaysia were the three largest contributing nationalities. China recorded the largest increase in commencements with 4,065 more commencements than the corresponding period in 2007, i.e. a growth of 22.8%.  Other markets contributing to the rise were Vietnam (58.2%), Saudi Arabia (91.2%), Republic of Korea (18.8%), Malaysia (8.1%) and Hong Kong (11.6%).

The majority of the commencements growth in this sector occurred in the ‘Management and Commerce’ broad field of education, up 17.2% on last year.  ‘Society and Culture’ and ‘Engineering and Related Technologies’ also grew strongly, contributing growth of 8.7% and 8.0% respectively.

 At the detailed level, much of the rise in the higher education sector occurred in ‘Management and Commerce’, ‘Business and Management’ and ‘Banking and Finance’ courses.

International Student Enrolments and Commencements by Sector, YTD July 2008

Vocational Education and Training (VET)

In YTD July 2008, the proportion of international student enrolments in the VET sector was 31 per cent, an increase from the 25.5 per cent recorded in YTD July 2007.

The sector has experienced a sustained period of strong growth since 2005 and this is continuing in 2008. YTD July 2008 figures showed increases of 44.1 per cent in enrolments and 41.8 per cent in commencements over the same period in 2007, with VET commencements now exceeding those for higher education. The three largest markets in this sector – India, China and Nepal – together accounted for 71.6 per cent and 67 per cent of the increase in enrolments and commencements respectively. Other markets to record significant growth were Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Mauritius and Thailand.

The top four broad fields of education were ‘Management and Commerce’, ‘Food, Hospitality and Personal Services’, ‘Society and Culture’ and ‘Engineering and Related Technologies’.  ‘Management and Commerce’ recorded the largest increase in commencements with 9524 more commencements than the corresponding period in 2007, representing growth of 34.3 per cent. Within the detailed field of education, ‘Hospitality Management’, the largest single field, grew by 36 per cent. Other strong contributors to the growth in VET commencements by detailed field of education include ‘Business Management’ (78.5% growth), ‘Welfare Studies’ (157.5% growth) and ‘Hospitality’ (427.8% growth).

ELICOS

Enrolments and commencements in the ELICOS sector grew 23.4 per cent and 22.3 per cent respectively between YTD July 2007 and YTD July 2008, continuing the strong growth seen in the sector since 2006. Markets that performed strongly were India, China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia and Brazil. Other growth markets include Thailand, Nepal and Colombia. There were continuing declines from traditional markets in the sector such as Japan and Taiwan, and the Republic of Korea and Bangladesh, both growing markets in 2007, fell in 2008.

Schools

Enrolments and commencements in the schools sector grew by 10.9 per cent and 13.2 per cent respectively. The growth in enrolments continues the upwards trend set through 2007.  Enrolments from China now make up 46.9 per cent of all international student enrolments in this sector. YTD July 2008 figures for China showed increases of 31.8 per cent and 37.4 per cent in enrolments and commencements respectively over the same period in 2007. 

The market from China continues to have a strong influence on the schools sector. If China were excluded from the data, the sector would show an overall decline of 2.6 per cent and 3 per cent in enrolments and commencements respectively. Large schools markets in decline are the Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan.

Attributing AEI International Student Data

When using any information in this article, please cite the source as "Source: Australian Education International Student Data, YTD July 2008".

About this data set

AEI enrolment data are extracted from the PRISMS database which is updated continually by education providers and by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship. Consequently, when AEI makes a new release it also updates its data for previous months in the current year to reflect these changes. Data on enrolments and commencements relate only to international students in Australia on a student visa. An enrolment is a count of any student enrolments in a discrete course of study and includes ongoing students. A commencement is a count of new student enrolments in a discrete course of study (and hence a component of the total count of all enrolments).

Note that AEI introduced the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED) into the International Student Data series in the year-to-date (YTD) January 2008 data. The Classification defines ‘Field of Education’ as being the subject matter of an educational activity. The introduction of ASCED provides a finer level of detail about the course of study undertaken by international students than with the old ‘Broad field of study’ classification. The older classification will be phased out after the YTD December 2008 data release.

The latest 2008 data can be viewed on AEI Online.

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