Page 18 - ELG1706 Jun Issue 448

DATA & ANALYSIS .

China climbs amid

the minus signs

Claudia Civinini analyses the latest gloomy (and not-so-gloomy)
student number gures for UK English language schools

th
he weak pound has not saved the years China has risen from 11 to become the report, the third produced in collaboration
UK ELT industry from its third fifth source market for the UK, and junior with Student Marketing, she said it was vital
consecutive year of decline, figures students have for the first time overtaken to track market trends closely to build an
Tfrom English UK show. adult numbers. Scotland and Northern industry that is ‘professional, innovative,
Increased competition between host Ireland bucked the trend and actually intelligence-led and thriving’.
countries, political uncertainty in Europe, registered some growth. Janet Galbraith, chair of English UK
Brexit and obstructive visa policies may have English UK chief executive Sarah Cooper Scotland, said she was ‘delighted’ to have seen
all conspired to cause the decline in 2016, the said last month that although the industry growth in the past year.
new report suggests. faced a downward trend, there was still ‘much She added: ‘We believe that the increase
Both student numbers and student weeks to be positive and optimistic about’. in direct flights operating into Scotland, the
show a minus sign for private and state Speaking at her organisation’s annual safe nature of our cities and a very positive
providers, and the same is true for staple general meeting, she added that she had been national rhetoric towards overseas visitors
source markets such as Italy and Spain. impressed by ‘innovation and enterprise in has really helped our schools strengthen their
However, some interesting trends hide the sector’ as language schools attempted to position in the market, and the positive trend
among the doom and gloom: in the past 3 rise to the challenge. In a foreword to the looks set to continue in 2017’.

Market shares by UK regions
BIGGEST SLICE OF THE
CAKE

Two regions have grown their share of the ELT
market: Scotland leads the way with an 11 per cent
increase from 2015, followed by Northern Ireland
with 4 per cent.
London and the south and south-east of England
retain the biggest slice of the ELT cake (see graph on
the right): 51 per cent of it, to be precise. However,
these regions are not immune from the general
decline in student weeks.
London is at -11 per cent, similar to Wales, south
and south-east England are at -12 per cent, as is the
south-west. The sharpest decline is seen in northern
England at -14 per cent.

SAUDI SURGE The 20 biggest source markets
1. Italy 11. Brazil
The golden couple, Italy and Spain, no longer dominate the charts. 2. Saudi Arabia 12. Kuwait
Italy still holds the pole position, despite showing a reduction
in both student numbers and student weeks for the second 3. Spain 13. Russia
consecutive year, but Spain has given in to a ve-year downward 4. France 14. Colombia
trend and slipped to third position. In second position there is a new 5. China 15. Taiwan
entry, Saudi Arabia, showing a plus sign for both student numbers 6. Turkey 16. Oman
and student weeks – which average at an impressive 9.4. Another 7. Switzerland 17. Thailand
pleasant surprise is China in fth position. So, while most of the 8. South Korea 18. Mexico
top-20 source countries show a fall, some upward trends are worth 9. Japan 19. Argentina
mentioning: Kuwait, Argentina and above all Mexico, which sent 45 10. Germany 20. Chile
per cent more students in 2016 than 2015.

18 June 2017

p18-19.indd 2 6/6/2017 2:53:35 PM