AEI releases October 2012 statistics

AEI has released the October 2012 international student enrolment data.
Trends for the ELICOS sector are proving 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 5 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.  The fact that October continues the growth trend (with 6.0%) and that we have now had three consecutive months where the number of students in courses are higher than the same month last year means that there are strong indications that the decline may have now 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 -6.5%.
   
 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 +1.6% for YTD 2012 to produce a total of 64,841 commencements.  This growth represents 1,020 more commencing students than YTD 2011. When compared with the peak year of 2009, however, the sector still shows a massive decline of -31%, representing 29,113 fewer commencing students. 
July showed strong growth of +29%, and although August returned to decline (-7.2%), September again showed growth with +8.6% and this continued in October with growth of +6.0%, with 6 of the top 10 source countries showing growth for the month.  October showed the most commencements for any month so far this year.
In both 2010 and 2011 all of the top 10 countries experienced declining numbers.  YTD 2012 figures show declines from 5 countries in the top 10:  China, South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, Saudi Arabia; and growth from 5 countries:  Spain, Colombia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan.  Spain is included in the top 10 for the first time.
Colombia showed the strongest growth of any country (students) with an additional 1,101 students. 
China showed the strongest decline of any country (students) with 1,147 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
 
Agents can access a summary of the key trends plus the ELICOS commencements for the top 100 ELICOS source countries by logging in to the following section of the English Australia website:
AGENTS » Agent Resources