What does the future of the international student market look like?

With over 1750 delegates gathering on the Gold Coast for AIEC 2022, the theme was' bouncing back', and the outlook was cautiously optimistic. According to IDP's Emerging Futures research, Australia trails only Canada as the most attractive global study destination.

Over the course of two sessions, Navitas offered a deep dive into the drivers of international student mobility and what to expect over the next ten years, predicting that there will be 9.8 million students studying internationally by 2030, up from pre-COVID levels of 6 million (although at a slightly lower rate of overall growth.)

During this period, world regions will grow at different rates, with new markets like Latin America and Africa emerging to diversify this growth. Furthermore, changing demographics will see some established markets shrinking, with Australia continuing to see a decline in students from countries such as Singapore and South Korea. Overall, Australia is forecast to see an increase to 720,000 students by 2030.

Whilst the long-term outlook is positive, we are entering the most competitive era of international education. Consequently, we must be mindful of the impact of policy decisions on student mobility and appetite over the coming years. For example, we have already seen how the visa backlog in Canada has forced students to defer studies or commence online - although recent additional resourcing is helping with Australia's own backlog.

Elsewhere in the conference, Karen Sandercock, Department of Education, emphasised: "One thing we need to keep doing is asking students what they want", and this will be essential to retaining Australia's competitive edge in a recovering market.

By centring student experience, improving post-work study rights and using innovative WIL programmes to improve employability outcomes for international students, Australia will be well positioned to benefit from returning demand.

In all cases, it was good to be back amongst the buzz of in-person events and to see this buzz reflected in the outlook of the wider industry.

Best regards,
Katherine Underwood