AEI releases August 2012 statistics

AEI has released the August 2012 international student enrolment data.

Trends for the ELICOS sector are proving very difficult to identify. Whilst the level of YTD commencements has stabilised, finally seeming to have brought to an end the fall that started in September 2009, each month tells a totally different story. The sector has seen 3 months of growth over 2012 to date, but 5 months of decline. Two of the growth months showed very strong growth (April and July were both up +29%), but both were followed by months of decline. The next three months, from September to November, are usually amongst the strongest of the year. The level of commencements for these months will provide the best indication of whether the sector’s decline has truly bottomed out.

All sectors except ELICOS show a decline in the number of commencements for YTD 2012, with a resulting overall decline across all sectors of -6.6%.

YTD 2012 commencement figures show a stabilisation of the decline for the ELICOS sector that started towards the end of 2009 and has continued since. ELICOS student visa commencements have grown by +0.1% for YTD 2012 to produce a total of 49,354 commencements. This growth represents just 27 more commencing students than 2011. When compared with the peak year of 2009, however, the sector still shows a massive decline of -36%, representing 27,201 fewer commencing students.

Despite the month of July showing strong growth of +25%, August returned to decline, with figures of -6.8% for the month and 7 of the top 10 source countries showing declines for the month.

In both 2010 and 2011 all of the top 10 countries experienced declining numbers. YTD 2012 figures show declines from 6 countries in the top 10: China, Vietnam, South Korea, Brazil, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia; and growth from 4 countries: Spain, Colombia, Thailand, Japan. Spain is included in the top 10 for the first time.

Colombia showed the strongest growth of any country (students) with an additional 838 students.

China showed the strongest decline of any country (students) with 1,549 fewer students.

Click here to view the AEI Summary.

English Australia Member Colleges and Corporate Affiliates can access a detailed analysis of the data from an ELICOS perspective by logging in to the following section of the English Australia website:

COLLEGES » Services & Resources » Statistics/Research