AEI releases September 2012 statistics

5 November 2012

AEI releases September 2012 statistics

AEI has released the PRISMS statistics for September 2012.

English Australia has produced a detailed report which provides an ELICOS sector perspective in analysing the statistics provided for YTD September 2012 compared with previous years.

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 4 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.  September showed growth of +8% but followed a decline of -7% in August.

Member Colleges and Corporate Affiliates can login to view the report on the English Australia website at:

COLLEGES » Services & Resources » Statistics/Research »
AEI Data - September 2012 - English Australia Analysis

[Please keep in mind that these statistics only refer to student visa holders and therefore underestimate the total number of students from many countries that attract large numbers of ELICOS students on other types of visas such as Visitor Visas or Working Holiday Visas. Colleges should refer to the annual English Australia ELICOS Industry Report for more detailed data regarding these other students. Nevertheless the AEI statistics are broken down by eCoE and therefore accurately reflect the number of student visa holders commencing courses in the ELICOS sector.]


Key Points

- All sectors except ELICOS show a decline in the number of commencements for YTD 2012, with a resulting overall decline across all sectors of -6.7%.

- 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 +0.9% for YTD 2012 to produce a total of 56,128 commencements.  This growth represents 499 more commencing students than YTD 2011. When compared with the peak year of 2009, however, the sector still shows a massive decline of -33%, representing 28,225 fewer commencing students.

- July showed strong growth of +29%, and although August returned to decline (-7.3%), September again showed growth with +8.2%, with 7 of the top 10 source countries showing growth 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, South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam; 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 979 students.

- China showed the strongest decline of any country (students) with 1,291 fewer students.

- Tasmania showed the strongest % decline whilst Queensland showed the greatest decline in numbers of students (-216).

- The strongest % growth was experienced by NT, however the strongest growth in numbers of students was experienced by Victoria (+762).

- The average number of students enrolled at any one time in 2010 was down to 28,444, with 2011 dropping even further, down to 23,676.  At YTD 2012, the average number of students enrolled is 21,870.

- September 2012 shows a head count of 21,788, 527 more than September 2011 but 13,373 fewer than September in the peak year of 2009.

 

A new Data Working Group has been established, bringing together representatives from DIAC, AEI and Austrade as well as representatives from industry peak bodies and state/territory governments.

English Australia’s Executive Director, Sue Blundell, is a member of the WG.

Although Australia already leads the world in the level of detail and timeliness of data related to international education, there are still gaps in our knowledge and we could still do better at analysing the data we have and using it to inform strategic decision making at provider, industry and government levels.

The first meeting of the Data WG will be held on 8 November. 

Member colleges are asked to consider the data that is already available (DIAC, AEI English Australia etc.) and provide feedback to the Secretariat regarding any further data collection and/or analysis that you believe is needed.

 

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