This month, Open Doors released their findings from a survey of 700 Intensive English Programmes (IEPs) in the US. How did they get on? Here’s the News in Numbers for the US in 2022:
The big picture…
2022 saw steady progress from the drop in numbers during the pandemic; student enrolments were up 63% from 2021, and student weeks up by 43%. Total recruitment reached 64,106 students, totalling 669,705 weeks of study for 2022. On average, international students are staying for about 10 weeks of study, though students from the Middle East and Africa are reaching 17 weeks of study.
Who is studying in the US?
Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) accounted for 89% of student enrolment. Of all those students enrolled, 31% were from Japan (16%), France (8%), and China (7%). Other top markets included Brazil, South Korea, Colombia, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and Switzerland.
By continent, the largest group were from Asia, at 36%. However, this is a decrease from 54% in 2019, and 41% in 2015.
On the other hand, students from Europe have shot up! In 2022, they totalled 32%, from 10% in 2019, and 7% in 2015. South America has also seen a small increase at 23% in 2022, from 17% in 2019, and 15% in 2015.
Where are they going?
The most popular states for study were California at 15,145 students, New York at 11,234, and Florida at 7,452. Massachusetts and Hawaii were not far behind at 4,191 and 3,509 students respectively.
When asked about further study, the data also showed that 27% of students intended to continue studying in the US.
So, how do the numbers compare?
According to Icef, the US has seen recovery of around 85% of pre-pandemic levels. However, compared to 2015, total numbers are still less than half of what they were, and total student weeks are down 66%.
The majority (92%) of IEPs are now back to in-person teaching. In 2021 this was 78%, and, in 2020, just 20%.
It would seem the US is on a road to recovery, but still has a way to go before achieving those peak numbers from 2015!
