Studying English in Australia – The In-Demand Experience

It’s been an astounding recovery for Australia’s English language sector – but this leads to some serious considerations for potential students.

2019 saw record numbers of students studying English in Australia. Nearly 200,000 student visa holders and 100,000+ working holiday makers travelled Down Under to study in our cities, beach areas and regional hubs. Here they could work and earn money, make new friends, experience the Aussie dream and make new friends from around the world.

Then came Covid and the Australian borders closed for over 2 years.?With no new students coming in from overseas, a number of our wonderful English language colleges were forced to close, or hibernate/scale back their operations.? Teachers left to find work elsewhere, leases on buildings were left to expire, and many colleges closed for good.? While we knew Covid wouldn’t last forever, it was a real worry who would be there to support students when borders reopened.?

Fast forward to January 2023, 10 months after the borders reopened, and the world is a vastly different place.?The demand to study in Australia is greater than ever; in fact English language enrolments are nearly twice what they were in 2019, which is nearly 2x more than the highest number ever.?

While the return of internationals looking to study in Australia is seeing an incredible bounce back, there are some lingering effects that prospective students must consider.? This is where a service like Go Study Australia becomes so important, as we see these effects on a daily basis and can advise students accordingly.

Firstly, many colleges are not handling the growth well.?Having lost so many admin staff and teachers, they are struggling to keep up with the huge growth of enrolments.?Many schools are now saying they are ‘full’ as they don’t have the physical space to host the numerous classrooms to keep up with demand.?

As many teachers moved to other industries, we are also seeing schools struggling to recruit English language teachers (hint: if you want to be assured to find a job in Australia, get qualified as an English teacher and you can snap up a job in no time). Many colleges have new or inexperienced teachers and some simply can’t run classes as they don’t have enough teachers at all.

Added to these concerns, some schools are taking weeks to issue an enrolment to students as their admin teams just can’t keep up which is making it hard for students to plan their travels.

So does this mean prospective students should consider delaying their trip to Australia?? Absolutely not.?Australia is still an incredible destination in the world to study English and we encourage you to still come to Australia – but you should seek advice from a professional service like Go Study about which college will give you a quality experience.

Go Study, and other education agents, talk to schools daily and get regular feedback from students so we know which schools can deliver a quality learning experience.? We see firsthand which schools are thriving with the post-covid growth and which schools are struggling, so we are able to advise students with the best recommendations.

If you have an interest in studying in Australia, whether it be English, a professional course or a Uni course – we encourage you to ask your education agent questions and ask their opinion on how the recommended college is managing their resources which will affect your learning experience.?

Go Study offers expert advice and support for anyone looking to study in Australia.? We enrol nearly 5000 students a year into colleges in Australia so we know the best colleges to meet your needs.? Use Go Study as a vital part of your research and let us help you with your education journey.

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By Simon Costain