They are Bridge Mills Galway Language Centre, Emerald Cultural Institute, International House Dublin, Liffey College, and Patrick’s English Academy.

Those five schools now join that have to date also been awarded the mark.

The announcement of the first language school awards, said Dr Lynn Ramsey, CEO of QQI, “marks a new era of quality oversight and regulation for the English-language education sector in Ireland, with the establishment of formal, statutory engagement with QQI. Under the scheme, QQI has a statutory monitoring responsibility to ensure providers adhere to the agreed code of practice, ultimately ensuring that the rights of learners are protected during their time studying in Ireland.”

An accompanying statement from QQI provides important background: “To obtain TrustEd Ireland authorisation, [ELT] providers must undergo a thorough due diligence assessment, which examines areas such as financial and legal structures and business plans to establish the capacity and capability of private education providers to deliver quality assured education programmes.

“Under the scheme, providers must also have quality assurance procedures that are approved by QQI and demonstrate compliance with an associated Code of Practice.” (Note that there are distinct Codes of Practice for and for .)

Replacing the ILEP

The continued expansion of the TrustEd Ireland scheme has additional significance beyond its role as an official quality mark. First, the provisions for the mark are enshrined in Irish legislation. QQI’s powers to assess and monitor providers and to enforce the requirements of the scheme also arise from that legislation.

Second, the TrustEd Ireland mark will shortly become the basis for determining whether or not an Irish institution or school is eligible to recruit non-EU students. In other words, it functions as a licence to operate in the international student market, at least in terms of recruitment of non-EU/EEA students that require a visa to study in Ireland.

The current mechanism for this is the Interim List of Eligible Programmes (ILEP), which is maintained by the Department of Justice’s Immigration Service Delivery. The ILEP, however, will shortly be superseded by the TrustEd Ireland scheme.

First announced in 2024, an initial window for applications for the TrustEd Ireland mark opened from 14 October 2024 to 28 March 2025. A second window was opened from 13 October 2025 to 27 March 2026, the decisions from which are expected by the end of this year.

After that point, the ILEP will be replaced by a new TrustEd Ireland Authorised Providers: List of Eligible Programmes. QQI explains: “The new TrustEd Ireland list will identify those programmes that comply with immigration requirements to enable Immigration Service Delivery (ISD) in the Department of Justice, Home Affairs & Migration to determine applications for study visas and immigration permissions for study purposes.”

“All education providers intending to recruit non-EU/EEA/Swiss students that require study visas or immigration residence permissions for the purpose of study (where such residence exceeds 90 days) must ultimately secure authorisation from QQI to use the TrustEd Ireland mark.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Ireland to open applications for new quality assurance mark in September 2024“
• “Ireland’s ELT sector reports modest growth in student numbers but weeks are down amid ‘real and consequential’ challenges“
• “Irish higher education reports a fourth straight year of foreign enrolment growth“

The post TrustEd Ireland quality mark rollout continues with awards to first group of English-language schools appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

Representatives from more than 150 Canadian language programmes (English and French) responded to both the 2024 and 2025 editions of the survey, providing an analytical basis from which to compare trends in both years. The topline finding is that the number of students decreased by -13% and student weeks by -19% between 2024 and 2025.

Just over 81,600 students were enrolled in language programmes in 2025 (92% in English, 8% in French), collectively spending about 798,900 weeks in their studies.

The following chart from the report shows that the marked downward trend in student weeks began in 2023/2024. The language training sector is now roughly half the size it was in the year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The value of the sector

�䲹�Բ��岹’s immigration policies have had a pronounced negative impact on international student numbers in Canadian institutions – and a much greater impact than the government anticipated. The result has been devastating for many institutions across levels and sub-sectors, but especially for language-training providers, which receive far fewer study permit allocations than universities do. In the foreword to the Languages Canada report, Gonzalo Peralta, the association’s executive director, notes:

“These policy decisions have significantly reduced enrolments, forcing programs to scale back operations and, in some cases, close entirely.

“While economic uncertainty and increased international competition contributed to the downturn, it is the policy environment that most decisively undermined the sector’s stability and growth. The consequences are felt across the country, with institutions struggling to maintain viability and communities losing the economic and cultural benefits these programs provide.”

What is at stake is not only the sustainability of the sector, but also millions of dollars. Languages Canada reports:

“Even amid this crisis, Languages Canada members contributed an estimated CDN$1.03 billion directly to the Canadian economy in 2025 – representing direct economic activity, much of it generated through export revenues – highlighting the sector’s enduring value.”

The estimated economic impact of the sector decreased by -1% in 2025 versus 2024.

Top 10 markets

Japan is the main sender of students and by far the largest contributor of student weeks. The top 10 markets for Canadian language programmes (with numerical values in the chart below) are:

• Japan
• Brazil
• South Korea
• Mexico
• Canada (Canadian students studying French or English in their own country)
• China
• Colombia
• Taiwan
• France
• Italy

All markets are down – some of them significantly – other than Canada, which is relatively stable. This fact alone highlights the damaging effect of immigration policies that of course do not affect Canadian students applying to their own country’s language programmes.

Destination comparison

The Canadian language training sector is not alone in facing difficult trading conditions. In terms of student weeks – a more indicative source of volume for language programmes than student numbers – the change between 2024 and 2025 was -8% in the US, -10% in the UK’s private sector, and -18% in Ireland.

In Australia, official data on student weeks for the English-language (ELICOS sector) has not yet been released, but:

• ELICOS’s share of total international enrolments nearly halved between 2023 and 2025 (from 16.6% to 8.8%);
• Student numbers fell from 97,200 in 2024 to 60,850 in 2025;
• Visa applications for ELICOS study dropped by -39% in 2025 versus 2024.

Similar to Canada, Australian government policies are the major contributor to the sector’s troubles. In Canada, the issue is the student cap that disproportionately affects language providers. In Australia, the main depressor on demand is the steadily rising visa application fee, which now stands at AUS$2,050 for English-language applicants. Applying for an Australian study visa is now roughly as expensive as a short English-language course of 10 weeks – and the application fee is non-refundable for students who are rejected for a visa.

Languages Canada vows to continue lobbying

Writing in the Languages Canada report, Mr Peralta says:

“While the findings present a stark and candid assessment, Languages Canada remains committed to working with its members and partners to advocate for the changes needed to stabilise and rebuild �䲹�Բ��岹’s English and French language education sector, support learners from Canada and around the world, and ensure that these essential programs can survive and recover.”

For additional background, please see:

• “US: ELT weeks fell by nearly 8% in 2025”
• “UK’s ELT sector reports declining enrolments through first quarter of 2026”
• “Ireland’s ELT sector reports modest growth in student numbers, but weeks are down amid ‘real and consequential challenges’”
• “Australia: Full-year data for 2025 reveals impact of AUD$2,000 study visa fee on ELICOS sector”
• “�䲹�Բ��岹’s language training sector reinvents pathway programme model in response to policy settings”

The post �䲹�Բ��岹’s language training sector in “state of crisis” after further enrolment declines in 2025 appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

The programme will draw €420 million from the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF), which support cohesion and equality across member states, and it will be administered by the Ministry of Education. Students will see their travel, living costs, food, and accommodation covered under the terms of the scholarship.

Minister for Education and Merit Giuseppe Valditara and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced the initiative together at a conference called “.” Details about timing will be released in the coming months.

Most scholarship students will go for two-week periods for language studies or immersion in a foreign high school environment, but in some cases, longer durations will be possible. While away, students may participate in a range of academic and social activities, including visits to companies and other workplaces.

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Meloni urged the audience to consider the new initiative as more than an opportunity to learn another language:

“Living and studying in another country, even if only for a few weeks or months, means learning to deal with new situations, becoming more independent, and engaging with people who have different customs, ideas and cultures from your own. It therefore means expanding your minds and your ability to understand others. It means building self-confidence, learning to cope and broadening your horizons. Furthermore, for us it means enriching our community, because when the young people participating in this project come back, they will bring back much more than just better knowledge of and fluency in a foreign language. They will bring back new ideas, new friendships, greater self-confidence and a broader view of the world, all of which certainly represents an asset for them, but it will also be valuable for their friends, their families, their classmates and the whole of Italy.”

The scholarships will be awarded based on merit but also using the ISEE (equivalent economic situation indicator) to ensure that students from all backgrounds can participate regardless of income. Prime Minister Meloni spoke to the importance of language learning for removing barriers across class:

“Today, we live in an increasingly interconnected world. Universities, employers, research institutions, and companies are looking more and more for people who are able to navigate international contexts, and speaking another language, particularly having a good knowledge of English, is very important. However, it is even more important to be able to use that language in real life, and you can’t do that by simply learning a language from textbooks; you can only do that by managing to experience that language, immersed in the context in which it is spoken.

This is why we decided to invest in this initiative, above all because we believe our talented young people deserve the same opportunities as all their peers in Europe, for example. We believe that, in this day and age, young people’s talent cannot and must not be limited by a language barrier.”

The significance of this new mobility programme arises in part from the fact that Italy is already a major EU sending market for language studies, and it is, for example, a top market for English-language training providers in the UK, Ireland, and Malta.

To be more specific: Italy was the second-largest sending market for Irish ELT schools in 2025, accounting for 14% of student weeks delivered that year. It was the leading source market for UK ELT in 2025 as well, where Italian students booked just over 14% of all English-language learning weeks. And in Malta, Italy was again the second-largest sending market for 2025 with 12% of student weeks for the year.

For its part, English UK was quick to recognise the importance of the new €420-million scholarship programme and signalled to its members that it is already “working with the Department for Business & Trade and the British Embassy Rome to present a unified UK offer.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Italy rises as a study destination but struggles to retain foreign graduates”
• “Malta: Non-EU students keeping ELT weeks stable in the face of falling enrolment from Europe”
• “UK’s ELT sector reports declining enrolments through first quarter of 2026”
• “Ireland’s ELT sector reports modest growth in student numbers but weeks are down amid ‘real and consequential’ challenges”

The post Italy announces its “biggest language training and international mobility programme ever” appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

The scrutiny is coming from more than one direction. Admissions offices are tightening their own checks on the authenticity and consistency of English-language evidence, in response to well-documented fraud vulnerabilities and inconsistent evidence standards across the sector.

At the same time, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) now runs an annual Basic Compliance Assessment (BCA) for every institution holding a student sponsor licence, scoring them on visa refusal rates, enrolment rates, and course completion rates. Falling short on any one of those metrics can strip an institution of the right to self-assess a student’s English ability altogether, forcing a shift to mandatory secure testing across the board. Further, a new Agent Quality Framework is being extended so institutions can no longer treat agent-sourced evidence as somebody else’s responsibility. In short: the English-language evidence an agent helps assemble now feeds directly into a compliance metric that determines whether an institution can keep recruiting internationally at all.

That’s the backdrop and it’s also the opportunity. Agents who understand this chain of evidence, and can speak to it confidently, become more valuable partners to the institutions they work with, and better advisers to the students who trust them.

Academic readiness is the cornerstone of student success

Academic readiness is the strongest predictor of first-year performance, progression, retention, and completion. When students arrive without sufficient English proficiency, the impact is immediate: difficulty engaging in seminars and group work, falling behind in reading-intensive modules, rising stress, and a higher likelihood of assessment failure or withdrawal.

Meeting a minimum entry requirement isn’t the same as being ready to perform at it. A student who scrapes the headline overall score with a weak reading or writing subscore is often the one who struggles most in postgraduate, research-intensive programmes, where extended reading and academic writing carry most of the assessment weight.

In practice, that means: looking with the student beyond the single overall band to the subscore breakdown; recommending a margin above the minimum particularly in speaking and writing wherever a programme is writing- or seminar-heavy; and encouraging an early retake where subscores are borderline, rather than waiting until an offer is at risk. Agents who steer students toward the cheapest or fastest route to a passing score to obtain a visa rather than genuine readiness, aren’t doing anyone any favours: those are the students most likely to need extra support, delay progression, or withdraw outcomes now visible to institutions through the BCA’s own completion-rate metric.

The growing scrutiny of MOI

Medium of Instruction (MOI) evidence is under sustained scrutiny, and institutions increasingly treat it as a case-by-case judgement rather than a standard alternative to testing. Practice varies widely: some institutions require MOI letters to be corroborated by transcripts, curriculum details, or interview; others have withdrawn MOI acceptance for certain markets or programmes altogether, following BCA findings that linked MOI-based admissions to weaker completion or higher visa refusal rates.

For agents, that means treating an MOI recommendation as a considered call each time, not a default and being able to talk a student through the reasoning.

Three questions are worth working through together: First, does the receiving institution’s current policy actually support MOI for this student’s country, subject, and level of study? Policies here shift often, so this is worth checking fresh for each application rather than assumed from a previous case. Second, was the student’s prior study substantively delivered and assessed in English not just described as such on paper in a way that plausibly matches the demands of postgraduate or research-intensive study in the UK? Third, is an MOI-based application more likely to trigger additional verification, delay an offer, or be queried at visa stage for this particular market?

Where any of these three is uncertain, recommending secure testing alongside or instead of MOI is the safer, more defensible choice for the student’s academic readiness, and for the agent’s credibility with the institutions they work with.

Secure testing as a strategic enabler

Secure English language testing is worth repositioning, in conversations with students, as more than an entry hurdle. It supports identity validation, demonstrates genuine academic readiness, reduces institutional exposure, and gives students greater confidence going into study. Viewing testing as an unnecessary cost is short-sighted: the real cost is poor preparation academic, financial, and emotional. Framing testing as an investment in a student’s own success, rather than a bureaucratic step, tends to land better with students and parents alike and it happens to be true.

BCA reviews are raising the bar

The Basic Compliance Assessment is an annual Home Office review of how well a sponsoring institution is managing its international student population against three metrics: visa refusal rates, enrolment rates, and course completion rates. Institutions rated amber or red face restrictions including, in some cases, losing the right to self-assess English-language ability, which pushes their entire cohort toward mandatory secure testing. As English-language evidence sits upstream of all three metrics a student who was never really ready for the course is more likely to be refused a visa, to under-enrol, or to withdraw, institutions are having to demonstrate, more rigorously than before, how that evidence was gathered, verified, and judged sufficient at the point of offer, both to their own compliance teams and to UKVI itself.

Agent-sourced evidence is now squarely inside that chain of justification. As regulatory attention on institutions increases, so does attention on the English-language guidance and evidence that agents provide upstream of the admissions decision. Weak guidance creates a vulnerability that traces all the way back to an agent’s file; strong guidance protects the student, the institution’s compliance record, and the agent’s own standing with institutional partners.

Defining practice that works for students and agents

A forward-looking standard is emerging, and it rewards informed, student-centred practice, which includes:

• Recommending the right test for the destination and programme, factoring in university acceptance, subject demands, security requirements, and timing
• Where subscores are borderline, especially speaking and writing for postgraduate, research-intensive courses, advising testing to a margin above the stated minimum, and supporting an early retake rather than a late one
• Treating MOI as a case-by-case judgement using the three questions above, not a standard substitute for testing
• Communicating secure testing to students as an investment in their own progression, not a hurdle to clear
• Keeping documentation authentic, consistent, and aligned with each institution’s current expectations, since these shift
• Engaging admissions teams early to confirm current requirements and reduce delays

These aren’t extra burdens layered on top of an agent’s advising role they’re the parts of that role now most visible to institutions, most consequential for students, and most likely to distinguish the agents that institutions want to keep working with.

The role of agents in a changing landscape

Agents are often a student’s first trusted adviser. Their guidance shapes not just admission outcomes but a student’s confidence, performance, and ultimately their success once they arrive. Getting the English-language piece right is one of the clearest, most immediate ways an agent can add value to that relationship and one of the clearest ways to build a track record that institutions notice.

How ELSAA supports the sector

ELSAA is the English Language Standard Advisory Authority [link to https://englishlsa.com]. Our mission is to strengthen standards, improve transparency, and support risk-aware decision-making across the English-language ecosystem. We work with agents and institutions to:

• Interpret emerging regulatory and compliance expectations
• Identify appropriate English-language pathways
• Reduce institutional and agent risk
• Improve student progression and retention
• Build trusted, future-ready recruitment practices

Agents who build this expertise put students at the centre of every decision and in doing so, strengthen their own standing with the institutions they work with. Strong English-language guidance isn’t an extra step; it’s the advantage.

The English Language Standard Advisory Authority (ELSAA) is an independent organisation dedicated to improving transparency, understanding, and informed decision-making in high-stakes English language testing. Through independent test reviews, comparative analysis, training, and advisory services, ELSAA supports universities, professional bodies, employers, and policymakers in evaluating and using English language assessments with confidence.

For additional background, please see:

• “Study highlights gaps between English standards set by test developers and those used by universities and professional bodies“
• “Narrowing bands of compliance: How the UK’s new RAG system will impact international student recruitment“

The post Why sharper English-language guidance is becoming an agent’s sharpest tool for student success appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

These are the topline findings from the , released this week by peak body English Education Ireland.

That +2% growth, says English Education Ireland CEO Lorcan O’Connor Lloyd, is “a meaningful achievement in a challenging environment, and a testament to Ireland’s enduring reputation for quality, safety, and a genuinely welcoming student experience.”

“Yet the challenges we faced were real and consequential. Stricter visa and immigration policies, rising costs of living, and broader pressures on global student mobility combined to reduce average programme duration significantly, from 6.4 weeks in 2024 to 4.9 weeks in 2025. Total student weeks fell by 18%, and the financial impact was felt acutely by schools whose revenue is tied to length of stay. The sector’s direct economic contribution rose to €817.6 million, but that figure masks the pressure many of our members experienced at the operational level.”

Shifting market segments

Junior programmes accounted for 57% of enrolments in 2025, but only 20% of student weeks. The more detailed breakdown in the table below makes it clear that there are important shifts within those two broad categories, with shorter mini-stay programmes gaining in popularity in contrast with significant declines in student weeks for the high-school and adult segments.

“One of the most significant structural shifts visible in this year’s data is the continued movement away from adult learners toward younger students,” says Mr O’Connor Lloyd. “Adult students, while still generating 80% of student weeks, have been in gradual decline for several years, as rising English proficiency in key source markets, greater price sensitivity, and evolving immigration conditions have made longer adult stays more difficult to sustain. This is not a trend unique to Ireland, and our data places us alongside comparable European destinations such as the UK and Malta in navigating this shift.”

Where do students come from?

As we see in the additional table below, the top ten sending countries for Irish ELT accounted for 80% of the market in 2025.

Looking just at student weeks, eight out of those top ten markets were either flat or declining last year. Mr O’Connor Lloyd adds:

“Alongside these pressures, the data points to areas of real strength and emerging opportunity. Italy consolidated its position as our largest source market, sending 47,693 students, a 5% increase. Japan delivered one of the standout performances of the year, with adult enrolments rising 47% and junior enrolments up 59%. Argentina, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Hong Kong all improved their positions, pointing to a broadening of Ireland’s international appeal and offering a clear direction for future market diversification.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Irish higher education reports a fourth straight year of foreign enrolment growth“
• “Global ELT volumes dipped in 2024“
• “Irish ELT sector sounds note of ‘cautious stability’ for 2024“

The post Ireland’s ELT sector reports modest growth in student numbers but weeks are down amid “real and consequential” challenges appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

, the peak body for 85% of all accredited English-language teaching (ELT) centres in the country, shows that state and private member centres hosted 311,815 full-time students face-to-face last year and delivered 998,045 student weeks.

Most ELT students (98%) study with private institutions, and of English UK’s 287 members, 264 are in the private sector. We will focus on that sector in this article.

Private sector trends

Private providers hosted -4.1% fewer students in 2025 than in 2024. Student weeks were down by -10%, and the average stay was 3.1 weeks, down from 3.3 in 2024. The following graphic shows the broad trendline for numbers and weeks from 2021–25.

Of all ELT students studying with private providers, 64% were juniors. Though a smaller segment numerically, adult learners tend to spend more time on their courses in the UK and represent two-thirds (65%) of all student weeks.

Türkiye and Argentina were the outliers among top 20 source countries for private providers in 2025: they were the only growth markets. Türkiye (#3) contributed +21% more student weeks than in 2024 and +33% more students, while Argentina (#14) was up +24.5% in student weeks and +28.9% in student numbers.

The private sector’s two top markets, Italy and Saudi Arabia, dropped by -7.6% and -6.4%, respectively, in terms of student weeks.

China accounted for one of the largest declines in weeks (-33.4%), and between 2024 and 2025, it moved from fifth to eighth place among the top 10 markets for the private sector. Asia as a source region is weakening significantly (-26.2%), with weeks from Japan and South Korea down by -16.4% and -10.2%, respectively.

The following table provides a detailed picture of private sector trends in 2025 compared with 2024.

Commenting on the 2025 trends, English UK chief executive Jodie Gray said that in a challenging global context, the UK’s ELT sector is proving resilient and working quickly to adapt to change.

“The story in this year’s statistics will surprise few in UK ELT. Yet in a challenging global environment, the UK continues to perform comparatively well. The strong foundations and adaptability sustaining us now will underpin our future.

We have been preparing for an uncertain world shaped by geopolitics, technological change and intensifying international competition. This week, we launch two documents setting out how we will act and advocate for the future of UK ELT.

Our updated position paper calls on government to move further and faster to create a more supportive operating environment. Initiatives including the Youth Experience Scheme, ID-card group travel, the return of Erasmus+, and our role in supporting delivery of the UK Government’s International Education Strategy offer renewed opportunity.”

Roz McGill, English UK’s market development & insights manager, added:

“Overall, the data suggests a market under pressure but still active, with patterns of demand shifting rather than disappearing. It also highlights the importance for ELT centres of remaining adaptable in their pricing, product mix, and market focus.”

“A challenging environment”

About 40% of English UK’s membership (116 private and state centres) submitted data for English UK’s report. Compared with Q1 2025, there was a -7% decrease in student weeks.

The decline was driven by weaker adult demand: adult student weeks fell by -10%, while juniors went up by +7%. However, Q1 is generally adult-dominated, with adults responsible for 85% of all student weeks, so the increase from younger students couldn’t significantly mitigate the decline in adult weeks.

English UK says:

“These findings highlight a sector operating in a challenging environment and underscore the need for members to remain responsive to both short-term fluctuations and longer-term structural characteristics.”

For additional background, please see:

• “US ELT weeks fell by nearly -8% in 2025”
• “Malta: Non-EU students keeping ELT weeks stable in the face of falling enrolment from Europe“
• “�䲹�Բ��岹’s language training sector reinvents pathway programme model in response to policy settings”
• “Australia: Latest enrolment data challenges the government’s assertion of stability for international education this year”

The post UK’s ELT sector reports declining enrolments through first quarter of 2026 appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

However, that recovery was short-lived. Presenting at the NAFSA conference in Orlando in late-May, Julie Baer, the deputy director of research, evaluation and learning at the Institute of International Education (IIE), shared that both enrolments and weeks decreased in 2025 compared to the year before.

The table below shows that there were 66,033 IEP students in 2025 compared with 69,705 in 2024. Student weeks fell from 768,883 to 709,705.

The nearly -8% drop in student weeks coincides with a decline in the average stay of IEP students, from 11.1 weeks in 2024 to 10.7 in 2025. This is the second-lowest average stay in eight years of tracking.

The current trend in the US is not unique – recent data show that many major English-language training destinations are seeing lower ELT enrolments and/or student weeks in 2025.

Major declines in top markets

The number of students from Japan fell by -22.8% in 2025 compared with 2024. Japan’s representation in the total number of IEP students in the US also fell to 12.5% in 2025 compared with 15.5% in 2024. As we reported recently, increasing English-language provision in Japan is depressing demand for travel for this purpose among Japanese students.

Other key markets also sent fewer students: China (-20.7%), Brazil (-22.6%), Colombia (-29.5%), and Germany (-25.5%).

There have been pronounced shifts in leading markets for IEP providers over the past few years. For example, in 2025, the top 5 markets were:

1. Japan
2. France
3. Italy
4. China
5. Brazil

In 2024, by contrast,

1. Japan
2. China
3. Brazil
4. France
5. Italy

In fact, only three markets in the top 10 posted gains in 2025, and two of them (France and Italy) were European. All Asian markets were down other than Vietnam, as were the important leading Latin American markets of Brazil and Colombia.

For additional background, please see:

• “UK ELT reports challenging enrolment trends continued through last quarter of 2025”
• “�䲹�Բ��岹’s language training sector reinvents pathway programme model in response to policy settings”
• “Australia: Full-year data for 2025 reveals impact of AUD$2,000 study visa application fee on ELICOS sector”

The post US ELT weeks fell by nearly -8% in 2025 appeared first on ���Ϲ��� Monitor - Market intelligence for international student recruitment.

The order dictates that “no applications may be made to the National VET Regulator under section 9 of the Act until after the day 12 months after the day this instrument commences.” The order is in immediate effect and it means that the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) will not accept applications from new providers or for new courses for a 12-month period beginning 19 May 2026.

The order specifically prevents any new applications for registration in the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS). CRICOS is Australia’s official government register of education providers and courses that are approved to enrol international students. And The Education Services for Overseas Students (ESOS) Act 2000 requires that any Australian institution enrolling visa-holding foreign students must be registered on CRICOS.

The 18 May order applies to private vocational education and training (VET) providers as well as those in the English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) sector. Public providers, including TAFEs and public universities, are exempt.

In other words, during the year-long freeze, no new private VET or ELICOS providers may be established, nor may existing private-sector providers establish any new courses.

A background brief accompanying the assistant minister’s order explains that there are two exceptions:

“The Suspension will not apply to applications made by any existing provider that relate to adding:

• a location for a course the provider is already registered on CRICOS to deliver
• a course identified as superseded (non-equivalent) on the National Register (www.training.gov.au), where the provider is already registered to deliver the superseded (non-equivalent) course.”

An accompanying statement from Mr Hill says that the freeze is necessary to “provide ASQA with additional time to address sector integrity issues while processing existing applications with a focus on rigour, scrutiny, and integrity.”

The assistant minister draws a direct line in his comments from the order to two substantive government reviews of Australia’s immigration system – the Rapid Review into the Exploitation of ���ܲ��ٰ���������’s Visa System (the Nixon Review) and the Migration Review in 2023 – which identified “significant integrity concerns within ���ܲ��ٰ���������’s international education system, particularly in the vocational education and training (VET) sector.”

“Suspending new registrations to teach international students VET or English language onshore is not a decision taken lightly and will allow the Government to address integrity concerns about new market entrants and oversaturation in the international VET and ELICOS sectors,” added the Assistant Minister. “Frankly, it raises suspicions when at the same time student numbers in these parts of the sector are moderating the regulator continues to see a rush of new market entrants.”

A blunt instrument

“The Albanese Government has quietly dropped one of the most consequential blows to ���ܲ��ٰ���������’s international education sector in years and it landed without warning,” says . “This is not simply a technical regulatory change. It is a deliberate attempt to reshape the international education market to favour public providers while freezing out the private sector…It freezes the entire pipeline of new entrants regardless of quality, innovation, or workforce relevance. It also blocks private providers from diversifying their offerings.”

Ian Pratt, Managing Director at Lexis English, also questioned the government’s approach, noting that, “We now appear to have reached the point where, instead of properly resourcing regulators to assess applications and enforce standards, the solution is simply to stop accepting applications altogether.”

“Instead of empowering the regulator to identify and remove poor operators, the government has chosen a blanket suspension targeting an entire segment of the sector,” he added on LinkedIn. “The genuinely frustrating part is that quality independent providers are not the problem here. Many of the most innovative, student-focused and internationally responsive organisations in Australian education sit within the private sector. These are the providers building niche programmes, responding quickly to employer demand, investing in student experience, and actively supporting regional economies.”

Part of a larger pattern?

The freeze on new CRICOS registrations arrives in the midst of an ongoing political debate around migration levels in Australia. Both the governing and opposition parties have offered policy positions based in part on reducing immigration levels, including with respect to international students.

A statement from Universities Australia Chief Executive Officer Luke Sheehy cautions in response that, “After two years of instability and policy swings, what the sector and students need now is stability, certainty and a clear long-term strategy.

“International students are not the low-hanging fruit both sides of politics are treating them as in the migration debate. Significant cuts to international student numbers would have real consequences for the economy and our universities at a time both are doing it tough.

“Australia cannot afford another race to the bottom driven by stop-start policy settings, political signalling or measures that damage our economy, our universities and our global reputation.”

For additional background, please see:

• “Australia: Multiple data indicators signal further declines ahead for international student numbers“
• “Australia: Student visa refusal rates reach record high amid weakening demand from China“
• “New IDP research shows link between visa uncertainty and the perceived ROI of study abroad“

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