Foreign students still flocking to Aussie unis but English language colleges going broke

English language colleges have been sent broke by a federal government clampdown on international students, the industry claims, but universities are still cashing in on foreign enrolments.

Chinese students make up 22.8 per cent of foreign student enrolments in Australia.

Foreign student enrolments in universities have soared 8 per cent this year, but private English language schools are being forced to close after losing at least one in three students.

A record 503,071 international students had enrolled in higher education by the end of July, as universities took their biggest share of students from overseas.

English language colleges, however, suffered a 38 per cent fall in enrolments to just 68,171 students – roughly half the post-­pandemic enrolments in 2023.

Private training colleges, offering courses such as childcare, hairdressing and hospitality courses, suffered a 4 per cent drop, with 305,722 enrolments – still 37 per cent higher than pre-pandemic enrolments in 2019.

Forty per cent of foreign students came from China or India, fresh federal Education Department data shows.

The Albanese government has been trying to restrict international student numbers, after they were blamed for putting pressure on rental housing after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Universities have increased their share of international student enrolments this year.

The data shows fresh commencements from newly arrived students plunged 16 per cent, with 347,834 new enrolments in the seven months to the end of July.

However, a record 791,146 foreigners were studying in Australia in July – with some enrolling in more than one course this year.

The number has grown only 1067 higher than last year but is 16 per cent higher than in 2019, before the pandemic closed Australia’s borders for nearly two years.

Chinese make up 22.8 per cent of foreign students, with 17.2 per cent from China and 8.2 per cent from Nepal.

The Albanese government will cap the number of new students arriving in Australia to 295,000 next year – 25,000 more than this year’s limit.

International Education Association of Australia chief executive Phil Honeywood said new commencements had fallen across the board this year “for the first time in living memory’’, after the government increased visa application fees to $2000 in June.

He said English language colleges were being forced to close as a result. “Clearly the world’s highest non-refundable visa application fee is doing the government’s work for it,’’ he said.

Phil Honeywood, chief executive of the International Education Association Australia

“English language colleges are closing down at an alarming rate and we are doing significant damage to ‘brand Australia’.’’

Mr Honeywood said one Eng­lish language college was shutting down every fortnight.

“Some are just hanging on in the hope that the government might reduce the cost of student visas for their sector only,’’ he said.

Mr Honeywood said universities were counting on “significant forward declines in their overseas student revenue’’.

“While some might be over­reacting, this is the fundamental reason for course closures and job losses,’’ he said.