International Student Enrolments Up 20.0% in October 2008

The year-to-date (YTD) October 2008 AEI International Student Data show there were 519,127 enrolments by full-fee paying international students in Australia on a student visa. This is a 20.0% increase on YTD October 2007, and is the first time enrolments have exceeded 500,000. Commencements in the same period grew by 23.7%.   

Nationality

Enrolments

The main source of Australia’s international students is the Asian region. Four of every five (79.1%) international student enrolments at onshore educational institutions were from the Asian region.

Nine of the top ten countries recorded increases in enrolments between YTD October 2007 and YTD October 2008.  India recorded the largest growth with 30,578 more enrolments than the corresponding period in 2007, a 51.9% increase.  Other top ten markets that grew strongly were China (growth of 20.0%), Nepal (105.6%), Vietnam (64.3%), Brazil (27.5%) and Thailand (11.1%).

Outside the top ten, countries with strong growth include Saudi Arabia (114.5%), Colombia (41.9%), Mauritius (67.9%), Sri Lanka (21.0%) and Pakistan (28.5%).

Hong Kong is ranked 6th by enrolment volume as at October 2008; however enrolments from this market declined across all sectors, with an overall decline of 5.0%. This compares with an overall decline of 3.3% for the same period in 2007.

Other significant markets to record falls in enrolments include Japan (16.2% decline), Taiwan (5.7%) and the United States of America (2.2%). Bangladesh recorded a decline of 9.0%, compared to growth in YTD October 2007 of 10.3%.

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

Commencements

Overall commencements grew by 23.7% between YTD October 2007 and YTD October 2008. India recorded the greatest growth with 18,004 more commencements than the corresponding period in 2007 (a growth of 51.8%). China recorded 14,862 more commencements (27.7% growth) in the same period.

Other top ten markets showing double digit growth in commencements as at YTD October 2008 include Thailand (13.9%), Nepal (70.7%), Brazil (29.7%), Vietnam (79.4%) and Malaysia (13.1%).  Among the other top 10 nationalities, the Republic of Korea grew by 3.6%, and the USA and Hong Kong recorded declines in commencements of 1.8% and 2.3% respectively. Outside the top 10, markets showing strong growth in commencements include Indonesia (19.6%), Saudi Arabia (115.1%), Colombia (33.6%) and Mauritius (108.2%).

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

Sector

Higher Education

In YTD October 2008, the highest proportion of international student enrolments were in the higher education sector (34.7%).  Enrolments in this sector increased by 4.5% while commencements increased 11.4% compared with the corresponding period in 2007.

China, India and Malaysia were the three largest contributing nationalities in both enrolments and commencements. China recorded the largest increase in commencements with 3,813 more commencements than the corresponding period in 2007, equivalent to a growth rate of 20.6%.  Other markets contributing to the growth in commencements were Vietnam (59.0%), India (5.0%), Malaysia (9.1%), Saudi Arabia (79.0%), and the Republic of Korea (14.6%).

The majority of the commencements growth in this sector occurred in the ‘Management and Commerce’ broad field of education, which increased 14.4% on last year. ‘Information Technology’, ‘Society and Culture’ and ‘Engineering and Related Technologies’ also grew well, with increases of 7.8%, 9.0% and 9.7% 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.

Vocational Education and Training (VET)

As at YTD October 2008, the proportion of international student enrolments in the VET sector was 32.2%, an increase from the 26.6% recorded in YTD October 2007.

The sector has experienced a sustained period of strong growth since 2005 and this is continuing in 2008.  YTD October 2008 figures show increases of 45.1% in enrolments and 43.8% in commencements over the same period in 2007.

Markets recording significant commencements growth figures were India (71.6%), China (44.0%), Nepal (95.5%), Republic of Korea (34.7%) and Vietnam (109.1%).

The three largest markets in this sector are India, China and Nepal.  Their influence in the overall growth in VET enrolments and commencements is considerable, accounting for 71.7% and 68.3% respectively of the overall growth in this sector. 

The top four broad fields of education in both enrolments and commencements 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 growth of 33.5%. The top detailed field of education was ‘Hospitality Management’, with 21,636 commencements and growth of 32.9%. Other detailed fields of education contributing to the overall growth in VET commencements include ‘Business Management’ (68.0% growth to 8752), ‘Cookery’ (44.0% to 6,403), Hairdressing’ (66.6% to 5,059), ‘Welfare Studies’ (150.4% to 4,863), ‘Management and Commerce’ (25.7 to 4,650) and ‘Hospitality’ (400.1% to 4,521).

ELICOS

Enrolments and commencements in the ELICOS sector grew 23.2% and 22.4% respectively between YTD October 2007 and YTD October 2008, continuing the strong growth seen in the sector since 2006.  Strong growth markets in enrolments include India (78.6% growth), China (26.7%), Vietnam (112.5%) and Saudi Arabia (115.8%). There were continuing declines from established markets in the sector such as Japan (20.7%), Taiwan (11.5%) and Hong Kong
(15.9%).  The Republic of Korea and Bangladesh were both growing markets in YTD October 2007.  However they recorded declines of 7.0% and 47.4% respectively for YTD October 2008.

Schools

Enrolments and commencements in the schools sector both recorded growth of 8.1% for YTD October 2008. Enrolments from China now make up 47.2% of all international student enrolments in this sector.  YTD October 2008 figures for China showed increases of 24.5% and 23.2% in enrolments and commencements respectively over the same period in 2007. 

China has a strong influence on the schools sector. If China were excluded from the data, the sector would show an overall decline of 3.4% and 3.3% in enrolments and commencements respectively.  

Large schools markets in decline include the Republic of Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Thailand and Indonesia.  These markets together currently account for 29.7% of schools sector enrolments.

International Student Enrolments and Commencements by Sector,
YTD October 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 at: http://aei.gov.au/AEI/MIP/Statistics/StudentEnrolmentAndVisaStatistics/2008/Default.htm

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