AEI releases November 2012 statistics

AEI has released the November 2012 international student enrolment data.

Student commencement data for the ELICOS sector is starting to show a definite bottoming out of the 3 year decline that began in September 2009 and has continued over a three year period through into late 2012. With the release of the November figures, we can see that 5 out of the last 6 months have seen an increase in commencements, with the number of students in class at 1 November almost back to 2010 numbers, a distinct improvement over 2011. This growth is also being seen across a range of diverse nationalities, with Brazil the only country in the top ten not to see growth in the month of November.

All sectors except ELICOS show a decline in the number of commencements for YTD 2012, with a resulting overall decline across all sectors of -6.0%.

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 now grown by +2.5% for YTD 2012 to produce a total of 72,246 commencements. This growth represents 1,764 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 31,979 fewer commencing students.

The sector has now seen three consecutive months of growth – with this growth experienced across a diverse range of markets. September numbers increased by +8.6% and this continued in October (+5.7%), and November (+11.7%) with 9 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 4 countries in the top 10: China, South Korea, Brazil and Saudi Arabia; and growth from 6 countries: Spain, Colombia, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Taiwan. Spain is included in the top 10 for the first time.

Colombia showed the strongest growth of any country (students) with an additional 1,221 students.

China showed the strongest decline of any country (students) with 976 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