In the year to date December 2025, 846,321 international trainees studied in Australia, representing a 0.5% decrease compared to the exact same period in 2024. The variety of brand-new trainees in 2025 (202,882) fell more greatly, decreasing by 15% year-on-year, according to data released by Australia’s Department of Education.
As many worldwide trainees carry out more than one course within a reporting year, total enrolments reached 1,058,040 over the same period, marking a 3% decline compared to 2024. Commencements likewise dropped considerably, falling by 15% to 479,104.
By sector, college recorded ongoing growth in enrolments, increasing by 10% compared to the previous year, followed by schools, which grew by 4%. All other sectors experienced decreases, most significantly English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Trainees (ELICOS), which fell by 35%.
Trainee source markets stayed focused, with 57% of worldwide trainees coming from just five Asian nations: China (23%), India (17%), Nepal (8%), Vietnam (4%) and the Philippines (4%).
For Melanie Macfarlane, CEO and principal of MMMigration and Recruitment, the current figures do not come as a shock.
“I do not discover this unexpected at all, provided the large volume of trainee visa refusals we have seen and the greatest ever volume of Tribunal applications– I think it’s up to 48,000 now approx. compared to two years ago where they had 2,400 trainee visa refusals just.”
“News of this tends to spread everywhere on social networks and does not provide much trust in the visa system, particularly with the high expense of a trainee visa now at AUD$ 2000, making it the most costly visa on the planet, including for a 6 month English course,” said Macfarlane.
According to the information, Management and Commerce was the most popular discipline among global students in both college and VET in Australia, followed by Information Technology in higher education and Food, Hospitality and Personal Services in VET.
While enrolments by level of study remain strong, with master’s degrees by coursework (48%) and bachelor’s degrees (37%) leading in college, and diplomas (36%) and Certificate IV (20%) in veterinarian, the sharp decrease in the ELICOS sector could impact the entire international education pipeline in the long run.
Plainly integrity and quality is a concern however I would say this is going too far and the tidy up of the sector is leading to the most affordable statistics in 20 years for
the English language sector Melanie Macfarlane, MMMigration and Recruitment”Clearly
stability and quality is a concern however I would say this is going too far and the clean up of the sector is leading to the lowest stats in 20 years for the English language sector, which naturally feeds into higher education and the professional education sector,” stated Macfarlane.
Macfarlane, along with others in the market, is contacting the federal government to lower visa fees for ELICOS trainees, warning that this could result in additional closures in the sector and describing it as “such a shame for the Australian worldwide education sector, which has taken several years to construct given the country’s range from the remainder of the world”.
In a recent op-ed for The PIE News, the country’s assistant minister for global education warned that the Australian government “will not withdraw from handling the size and the shape of the onshore worldwide trainee market and ongoing relocations towards a more sustainable sector”.
However he said in doing so, the government intends to “maximise policy stability and reduce policy shocks that obstruct our nation’s capability to continue to bring in the best and the brightest for a premium Australian education”.
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