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14 Jan 2015

As much as the language travel sector is a key segment of the international education industry,
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little comparative data on the sectors performance and trends has been available to date, whether intelligence! Join our 41,000+ subscribers and
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To help address this, the Association of Language Travel Organisations (ALTO) commissioned
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leading consultancy Deloitte to conduct a global survey of language schools and agencies. The
survey was administered in 2014 and drew responses from 100 language programme providers
representing 304 schools and 64 agents representing 127 agency offices.

The goal of the ALTO-Deloitte Language Travel Industry Survey was to take the pulse of the
language travel industry and produce statistics about business performance and outlook across
language schools and education agencies.
Survey finds prospective #students put the
The 2014 survey is to be the first in a series of annual efforts that, over time, will provide valuable emphasis on welcome and teaching quality
benchmarking data for this industry. ALTO and Deloitte note of the data generated by their survey: https://t.co/6ejqq5541W #studyabroad @Hobsons -
1 day ago

Top #Asian institutions form new #universities

alliance https://t.co/5paOiQovN8 #studentmobility - 2
days ago

Enrolment in British #independentschools down

slightly this year https://t.co/bl7VonPCJY
#Britisheducation - 2 days ago

#Australia introduces additional reporting on agent

performance https://t.co/YV8YRL1I7O
#studentrecruitment #intled - 1 week ago
This ICEF Monitor article will present some of the findings of the survey, and then it will turn to
#Vietnam: Regulatory change expected to spur
highlights from a special report from the December 2014 issue of Study Travel Magazine (STM)
international school enrolment https://t.co
which looks at recent trends for the eight leading destination markets for English language study. /Ry4VFvqRsn #k12 #schools @GroupISC - 1 week
ago
The ALTO-Deloitte schools and their use of agents for bookings

The 304 schools represented in the ALTO-Deloitte Language Travel Industry Survey spread out
across the world but with significant representation in the UK, US, and Canada have combined
net revenues of US$507.8 million. More than half (59%) of respondent schools offer English
language courses; 13% offer Spanish; then French (8%), Chinese (6%), German (5%), and then
smaller percentages for other languages.
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Source markets that featured as very important across the broad mix of schools included Brazil,
Spain and Italy. Foreign enrolment hits new record in Australia

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international postgraduates
Responses from schools about the average length of time students spend in their language Institutional websites remain a key element of online
courses provided an average of 5.1 weeks, with adults staying longer (6.1 weeks) than juniors (2.3 recruiting
weeks).
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Across the countries, junior weeks brought in more money than adult weeks (an average of
US$616 for junior versus US$316 for adult). The UK posted a very high value (US$923 a week) Russia: Education agents optimistic as economy
for its junior courses, which the study report says is likely due to a number of schools offering strengthens in 2017
premium junior courses within the UK sample. Australia on track for 12% growth in 2016

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UK: Projecting Brexit fallout as non-EU enrolment stays

Average turnover per week reported by ALTO-Deloitte school respondents, US$, 2014. Source:
ALTO-Deloitte

Growth reported across the board

Asked about whether they witnessed growth or decline in 2014 compared to 2013, the school
respondents reported overall growth. In terms of student weeks, respondents noted a 9% increase
for junior courses and 16% for adult courses. As for revenue, respondents reported a 10% Go to the accompanying article
increase for junior courses and a 16% jump for adult courses.

Australian schools reported the biggest growth in student weeks (24%), well ahead of the US,
Canada, and South Africa (each at 16%). Australian respondents also saw their revenues jump
nicely from 2013 to 2014 (21% growth), as did South Africa (20%) and Canada (19%). Less
buoyant, though still experiencing growth, were British schools (11% up for student weeks, 9% up
for revenues).

Year-over-year revenue growth, 2013 to 2014, reported by ALTO-Deloitte school respondents.

Source: ALTO-Deloitte

Drags on business performance

When schools were asked about particular issues that have affected their business over the last
12 months, 81% said that economic issues in source countries had had a negative impact. Nearly
three-quarters (72%) reported that visa policies in their own country had been a problem for their
business.

We have reported frequently on the effect of visa policies on international education sectors
around the world. It is not surprising then to see Australia enjoying recent growth in both student
weeks and revenue given recent changes to its visa system that have been more inclusive of
language schools.

Agents biggest business is adult courses

Agent-respondents to the ALTO-Deloitte survey reported that adult courses compose more of their
business mix than junior courses do (65% adult versus 35% junior for student weeks, and 71%
adult versus 29% junior for commission revenue).

The UK emerged as the top place into which responding agents were booking junior students in
2014, followed by the US, Canada, Ireland, France, and Germany.

The mix is slightly different for adult courses, with the UK still top for this but France second this
time. The US comes in third, then Canada, then Australia.

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Agents experiencing lower growth than do schools

Roughly as many agents said their junior weeks placements had increased (31%) in 2014 over
2013 as said they had decreased (29%), with 40% saying they had remained the same. There
was slightly more growth reported for adult weeks placements: 38% increase, 27% decrease, and
35% no change. Overall, junior weeks revenues did not move up from 2013 for agents, while adult
weeks went up by a modest 1.7%.

A closer look at English-speaking destinations

Aside from this being the first year of the ALTO-Deloitte survey, an important caveat that
accompanies its findings is that they are based on a self-selecting sample of school and agent
respondents. The survey is a valuable new contribution to the available data for the global
language travel industry but its results necessarily reflect the make-up of the respondents, both in
terms of nationality and mix of business.

In that sense, a recent item in Study Travel Magazine represents both a complement and a
contrast to the inaugural ALTO-Deloitte survey in providing an overview of recent-year trends in
the worlds eight leading destinations for English language study. STM drew on national-level data
surveys for its findings of recent industry trends over 2012 and 2013. Like ALTO-Deloitte, it finds
some important indicators of growth, albeit at a more modest pace, and provides some broad
comparative values for the worlds major study destinations.

STM estimates the value of the English language teaching market across the eight leading
destinations the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Malta, and South Africa at
just over US$11.7 billion. America and the United Kingdom hold the lions share of this revenue
base, more or less splitting two-thirds of the market between them, followed by Australia and
Canada, at 15.5% and 13.5% respectively. The individual market shares of the remaining
destinations in the top eight fall off rather sharply from there, ranging from 4.6% for Ireland to 0.6%
for eighth-place South Africa.

Global English language market by revenue, 2013, US$. Source: Study Travel Magazine

The STM review finds that, among these eight destinations, revenue grew by 3.3% from 2012 to
2013 with student numbers increasing 0.4% and student-weeks nearly flat (a marginal 0.1%
increase over 2012).

Australia and Canada were the big gainers among the top four destinations, with revenue growth
of 36% and 12% respectively.

In contrast, both the UK and the US saw revenue fall off from 2012 to 2013, with Britain registering
a 1% decline and a 2% drop for the United States. The [US] is currently experiencing mixed
fortunes in its IEP sector with declining student numbers from traditional source countries such as
Korea and Taiwan, offset by large increases in students from China and Saudi Arabia, notes
STM. The picture in the UK appears to [again] be one of mixed experiences as traditional markets
such as Spain and Italy experienced a decline in numbers while other [markets] posted strong
growth.

Canadas revenue growth (as measured in US$-equivalent values) may have been due in part to

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the continued strength of the Canadian dollar relative to the US currency over 2012 and 2013.
That currency effect, along with any price inflation in the market over those two years, effectively
masks a real decline in enrolment in Canadian language programmes: student numbers were
down by 9% from 2012 to 2013 and total student weeks were virtually flat, registering a 1%
decline. A spokesperson for Languages Canada, the peak industry body in the country, attributed
the decline to a combination of a strike by foreign service visa officers affecting the processing of
visas at the height of the summer and changes to student visa regulations [that] led to uncertainty
in the international market.

In Australia, meanwhile, Sue Blundell of English Australia attributes the countrys strengthening
revenue base to enrolment growth in academic preparation programmes. This is being driven by
post study work rights and streamlined visa processing for universities and packaged English
programmes, she adds. The growth is experienced primarily by university language centres and
not to the same extent by private providers.

As with the ALTO-Deloitte survey, STMs work in compiling and comparing details of market share,
growth, relative pricing, and other trends is an important contribution to our overall understanding
of the global marketplace. The real value of both the ALTO-Deloitte and STM benchmarks will be
in continuing to compile similar data in the years ahead and in using that as a basis for charting
longer-terms trends in language travel, both for the global market and for major study destinations.

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This entry was posted in Africa, Agents, Australia, Australia/Oceania, Brazil, Canada, Europe, France, Germany,
Ireland, Italy, Language Learning, Malta, Market Intelligence, New Zealand, North America, Regions, Research,
South Africa, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Youth Trends and tagged Canada, exam preparations,
Germany, student mobility, visa processing.

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