The first half of Australia’s 2022/23 fiscal year has come and gone, and the country’s international education sector is on track to shatter full-year highs for student visas granted.
Nearly 250,000 international students were granted a student visa during the first half of fiscal year 2022/23.1 That’s 42% more students than the first half of 2019/20, the previous high for this period.
The international education sector has entered a new era of student choice, and Australia is one of its hottest destinations. Today, we unpack what’s driving Australia’s positive momentum, where students are coming from, and much more.
Key Insights at a Glance
- Nearly 250,000 international students were granted an Australian student visa from July to December.
- In just six months, visas granted for English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) and Vocational and Education Training (VET) nearly matched their previous full-year highs.
- With over 43,400 students granted visas, Indians became Australia’s top student population.
- ELICOS visa success for LATAM students reached 96% in Australia’s top seven LATAM countries.
Sector Momentum Fueled by Recovery of ELICOS and VET
Australia came roaring back as a top destination for international students after reopening its borders in January 2022. And the first six months of 2022/23 picked up where the previous fiscal year left off:
When Australia closed its borders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were concerns that its English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) and Vocational Education and Training (VET) study levels would be slow to recover. But 2022/23 is defying those worries.
Nearly 35,000 international students were granted a visa for ELICOS in the first half of this fiscal year. That’s 75% more than the previous high for those months and only 6% below the full-year high. Similarly, the nearly 73,000 visas granted to VET students surpassed the previous high for the July to December months by 55% and came only 15% short of the full-year high. On the ApplyBoard platform, the top Australian fields of study that students and their recruitment counsellors search for are business, engineering and technology, and sciences.
The continued expansion of these two study levels will be critical to the ongoing success of Australia’s international education sector. ELICOS and VET are often the first step in a long study abroad journey for students. Also, student populations tend to gravitate toward certain study levels. This means that the Australian Government’s investments to further strengthen and grow ELICOS and VET has enabled Australia’s international education sector to reach a larger pool of student talent. The growth of these study levels in 2022/23 has contributed to multiple student populations setting new full-year highs in just six months, which we’ll detail further below.
Australia’s higher education level is also booming in the first half of 2022/23, with student visas granted surpassing the previous six-month high by 36%.
Growth in VET Numbers in 2022/23 Shows India Overtaking China as Australia’s Top Student Population
One of our five international education predictions for 2023 included India overtaking China in all major English-speaking destination markets. That prediction is holding true in Australia:
Australia’s Indian student population boomed during the first half of 2022/23, with more than 43,400 student visas granted. That’s 68% more than the previous first-half high and only 23% below the previous full-year high. For comparison, the 41,300 student visas granted to Chinese students is only 2% above the previous first-half high and 51% below the previous full-year high.
Growth of Australia’s VET study level has helped the strong 2022/23 visa success for Indian students. VET accounted for one out of every three student visas granted to Indian students in 2022/23. In 2018/19—the previous full-year high for Indian students—VET accounted for only 14% of granted visas to Indian students.
And Australia’s booming VET and ELICOS sectors are boosting visa numbers for other student populations as well.
Several of Australia’s Top 10 Source Countries Set New Full-Year Highs Due to ELICOS and VET
The racing bar chart below shows the top 10 source markets for Australia’s international education sector since 2017/18:
In just six months of 2022/23, Colombia and the Philippines set new full-year highs. Students from both countries primarily study ELICOS and VET.
Over 75% of student visas granted to Colombian students in 2022/23 were for ELICOS. VET accounted for another 21%. Filipino students nearly mirrored the Colombian numbers, but in reverse. VET represented three out of every four student visas granted to Filipinos, while ELICOS represented another 22%.
Thailand also set a new full-year high in just six months.2 ELICOS accounted for slightly under half of all student visas granted to Thai students. And VET followed suit, also representing just below half of all granted visas.
These three countries grew by at least 10% in 2022/23 compared to their previous full-year high. Their massive growth highlights the importance of sector balance. A healthy pool of study level offerings allows destination markets like Australia to reach strong student talent from across the world.
Other emerging markets that have already set full-year highs in just six months include Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Turkey.
ELICOS Boosting Australia’s Reach in LATAM
In January 2022, Austrade launched the Study Australia Experience platform, targeting the Latin American (LATAM) student recruitment market. This initiative appears to be paying dividends:
Four of Australia’s top seven LATAM countries by student visas granted surpassed their previous full-year high. And the remaining three are on track to set new highs by the end of the fiscal year.
What’s more, LATAM students gravitate toward ELICOS programs in Australia. Six of Australia’s top seven LATAM countries saw ELICOS account for over half of all student visas granted. And there’s great news for these students: the ELICOS grant rate exceeded 96% for all seven markets, which was an increase over 2018/19 levels for five countries.
Looking Forward
Australia has been a steady stream of positive news for students since the country reopened its borders. Australia extended post-study work rights for international students in September and just recently expanded post-study work rights for Indian students. In a relatively short time, Australia’s become arguably the most generous destination country to international students seeking post-graduation work.
Like the Study Australia Experience platform that targeted LATAM recruitment markets, Western Australia launched a scheme for 2022/23 that incentivizes agents per student enrolled by study level in the state. And in the first half of 2022/23, almost double the number of international students were granted a student visa in Western Australia compared to the previous first-half high. The initiative has clearly proven successful even though Western Australia’s grant rate fell to an all-time low of 82%, primarily at the VET level.3
These are but a few of the initiatives launched over the past year. But combined, they show what innovation can do for a country’s international education sector. Fiscal year 2022/23 is poised to shatter previous highs for the number of student visas granted, likely in part to all these study-friendly policies. At ApplyInsights, we look forward to continuing to advocate for similar innovations that will help educate the world.
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FOOTNOTES:
1. All data courtesy of the Australian Department of Home Affairs (ADHA). All data reported according to Australian governmental financial years, which span from July of one year to June of the next year (for example, July 2021 to June 2022 was the 2021/22 year). The data used for this article includes subclass 500 and subclass 570 to 576 visas granted to primary applicants only.
2. While the number of student visas for full-year 2008/09 was higher than the first half of 2022/23, Australia’s international education sector underwent significant changes in 2009/10 that made earlier fiscal years less comparative.
3. The grant rate for VET in Western Australia fell to 64.9% in 2022/23. Its previous low was 70.7%.
