NOTE: All analysis is undertaken on current year to date figures (from 1 January to the end of the current month’s data) compared to the same period in the previous year.
International Student Enrolments up 10.7% in November 2006
AEI International student data showed that there were 380,637 enrolments by full-fee paying international students in Australia for the year-to-date (YTD) November 2006. This represents a 10.7% increase on the same period last year.
Nationality
Enrolments and Commencements
The top three markets China, India and the Republic of Korea (South) constituted 41.9% of the total international student enrolments in the period YTD November 2006. The same three markets accounted for 41.1% of commencements in the same period.
International Student Enrolments—Top 10 Nationalities, YTD November 2006
|
Nationality |
Enrolments |
% of Total |
Growth on
November 2005 |
|
China |
89,681 |
23.6% |
10.3% |
|
India |
38,700 |
10.2% |
41.0% |
|
Republic of Korea |
30,943 |
8.1% |
18.9% |
|
Hong Kong |
20,462 |
5.4% |
-3.9% |
|
Malaysia |
19,126 |
5.0% |
-1.1% |
|
Japan |
17,673 |
4.6% |
-6.5% |
|
Thailand |
17,634 |
4.6% |
7.9% |
|
Indonesia |
14,984 |
3.9% |
-6.8% |
|
United States of America |
12,037 |
3.2% |
-4.3% |
|
Taiwan |
9,873 |
2.6% |
3.5% |
| Other |
109,524 |
28.8% |
15.1% |
|
Total - All nationalities |
380,637 |
100.0% |
10.7% |
Significant growth in enrolments was recorded by India (41.0%), Republic of Korea (18.9%), Brazil (43.9%), Vietnam (27.3%), and Sri Lanka (31.3%). The same four markets also showed good growth in commencements recording 55.2%, 39.3%, 36.6% and 43.4% respectively.
International Student Commencements—Top 10 Nationalities, YTD November 2006
|
Nationality |
Commencements |
% of Total |
Growth on
November 2005 |
|
China |
45,914 |
22.1% |
5.1% |
|
India |
20,867 |
10.0% |
55.2% |
|
Republic of Korea |
18,698 |
9.0% |
19.7% |
|
Japan |
10,368 |
5.0% |
-8.3% |
|
Thailand |
10,258 |
4.9% |
11.1% |
|
United States of America |
9,975 |
4.8% |
-4.9% |
|
Hong Kong |
9,030 |
4.3% |
0.0% |
|
Malaysia |
7,805 |
3.7% |
0.6% |
|
Brazil |
7,346 |
3.5% |
39.3% |
|
Indonesia |
6,577 |
3.2% |
-1.7% |
|
Other |
61,353 |
29.5% |
19.2% |
|
Total - All nationalities |
208,191 |
100.0% |
13.2% |
While several of Australia’s traditional Asian markets (Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Indonesia) continued to record a decline in enrolments for the period, only Indonesia showed a decline in growth in commencements. Another traditional Asian market, Thailand continued to rebound from earlier slowing of growth to record a 7.9% growth in enrolments and 11.1% growth in commencements. The USA (-4.3% and -4.9%) and Japan (-6.5% and -8.3%) recorded declines in both enrolments and commencements.
Sector
|
Enrolments |
Commencements |
|
2006 |
Growth on
November 2005 |
2006 |
Growth on
November 2005 |
| Higher Education |
172,103 |
5.2% |
68,943 |
4.9% |
| VTE |
82,703 |
25.2% |
48,837 |
29.0% |
| ELICOS |
75,528 |
18.8% |
57,679 |
18.8% |
| Schools |
24,671 |
-1.8% |
11,303 |
7.7% |
| Other |
25,632 |
0.2% |
21,429 |
0.1% |
| Total |
380,637 |
10.7% |
208,191 |
13.2% |
Enrolments in the Higher Education Sector grew at an overall rate of 5.2%. This was driven largely by increases in enrolments from China and India. However, the commencements growth for China was only 2.6%, suggesting a likely slowing of growth in future enrolments from this market in this sector.
The broad field of study ‘Business Administration and Management’ continued to be the most popular among higher education international students and showed strong growth (11.2%) in enrolments from the previous year. Interestingly, the other field of study that showed good growth was Nursing (37.7%) albeit from a small base (3,977 enrolments at YTD November 2006). The field of study ‘Computer Science, Information System’, however, continued to decline, with a decrease of -12.0% on the previous period. The commencement data also indicated similar trends where ‘Business Administration and Management’ and ‘Nursing’ recorded increases of 7.2% and 30.2% respectively and a decline (-10.3%) in ‘Computer Science, Information Systems’.
The VTE sector recorded strong growth in commencements, primarily due to significant growth from India (151.4%), the Republic of Korea (26.9%), Thailand (17.3%), and Brazil (46.0%). Commencements from the sector’s largest market, China, also grew at 13.4% for the period. Growth in enrolments from the top two markets China (14.1%) and India (163.7%) was accompanied by significant growth from Brazil (48.3%) and the Republic of Korea (33.9%).
Growth in both enrolments and commencements in the VTE sector was greatest in the broad field of study ‘Services, Hospitality, Transport’ (70.3% and 69.8%). This means that this field of study is challenging ‘Business Administration and Management’ (which also had good growth in enrolments and commencements of 10.7% and 12.5% respectively) as the most popular field of study. ‘Health, Community Services’ and ‘Land and Marine Resources, Animal Husbandry’ also recorded strong growth in both enrolments and commencements, albeit from a small base.
The ELICOS sector also registered good enrolments growth overall (18.8%). Significant growth in enrolments was recorded from the Republic of Korea (23.4%), Thailand - which reversed the trend evident in earlier years – (17.4%), Brazil (48.2%), and India (135.0%). India is now Australia’s seventh largest market for ELICOS. Four of the other markets in the top six, the Republic of Korea (21.6%), Thailand (17.2%), Brazil (39.5%), and Taiwan (14.2%) all recorded strong growth in commencements. Japan continued to register a decline in commencements
(-10.3%).
In the Schools sector, China continued to lead the way with 9,617 enrolments YTD November 2006 followed by the Republic of Korea with 5,017. While the growth rate for Chinese enrolments was at -7.1%, commencements were at 6.4%, a turnaround from the previous two years. Commencements from the Republic of Korea (17.7%), Vietnam (56.8%) and Germany (26.8%) all grew strongly from the previous year. Hong Kong and Japan continued to record negative growth in both enrolments and commencements with -7.8% and -5.9% for Hong Kong and -10.2% and -13.3% for Japan.
Note
AEI data are extracted from the Commonwealth Provider Registration and International Student Management System (PRISMS) database which is updated continually by education providers and by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Consequently, when AEI releases new monthly data, it also updates its data for previous months in the current year to reflect these changes.
As mentioned above, these data relate only to those students on a student visa.
The new data can be viewed at: http://aei.dest.gov.au/AEI/MIP/Statistics/StudentEnrolmentAndVisaStatistics/2006/Default.htm
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