Australian language colleges ‘struggling for survival’

Government policy changes have done more than the coronavirus pandemic to throttle Australia’s language training sector, costing thousands of jobs and threatening to fundamentally change the nature of a once-thriving industry.

Representative body English Australia (EA) says policies designed to ensure integrity in degree-level study are jeopardising the viability of stand-alone English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (Elicos), with at least 5,000 jobs already lost.

EA says Australia’s imposition of a A$2,000 (£1,048) student visa application fee is crippling demand for stand-alone language study, with students unwilling to outlay a substantial proportion of their course costs on immigration paperwork – particularly when they stand a one-in-four chance of being rejected.

This leaves language study as a viable option only for students obtaining “packaged” visas that typically cover combinations of English courses, preparatory studies and degrees. These strings of courses can last six years or more and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition, making a A$2,000 visa fee a more justifiable investment.

Packaged applications are also categorised as higher education visas by immigration officials, boosting their chances of success. Ninety-three per cent of higher education visa applications were granted last year, compared with 76 per cent of stand-alone Elicos applications.

EA chief executive officer Ian Aird said stand-alone Elicos would struggle to survive while visa fees remained so high. Many would-be students assume that Australia considers them “cash cows” or “simply doesn’t want them”, he said.

“Some have decided that it’s just not worth applying at that price. Others have…reduced the amount they spend on the trip by the amount of the visa. They come for less time [and] do less tourism at the end, or go to cheaper colleges.”

Aird said Elicos’ character would change “dramatically” if it were reduced to exclusively providing an educational pathway role, and no longer catered to “study travel” demand from a “rich and diverse” set of countries that barely registered in other sectors’ enrolments, including France, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland.

An EA study has found that stand-alone Elicos has sustained more damage from the federal government’s crackdown on international education than from the Covid-induced border closures. Visa grants slumped by about 26,000 in 2024 alone, compared with a decline of roughly 24,000 in the first year of the pandemic.

The EA report says applications for stand-alone Elicos visas crashed 38 per cent after the visa fee rose from A$710 to A$1,600 in July 2024, and another 25 per cent after the fee rose again in mid-2025. Compared with 2019 figures, applications from Japan and Taiwan have fallen 30 per cent, and 48 per cent from Spain.

Last year, monthly stand-alone Elicos visa grants were at their lowest level on record, outside the border closure period. Grant rates for applicants from some key source countries fell from about 80 per cent before the pandemic to 56 per cent for Thais, 47 per cent for Mongolians and 29 per cent for Chinese.

Aird said the Covid-era removal of limits on international students’ working hours, against the sector’s advice, had fuelled an influx of foreigners seeking employment on the pretext of study. The government had reacted belatedly by ordering “forensic analysis” of every visa application.

Although higher education applicants had been coached by agents to include ample evidence of their genuine intent to study – including their understanding of the course, the institution and the expected salary benefits back home – Elicos applicants had not, until recently, been so thoroughly scrutinised.

“A student coming for 18 weeks of English asks the agent…which school they should attend,” Aird said. “They pick based on pictures in the brochures that look fun and cool.”

He said the decline of stand-alone Elicos could deprive universities of international students who decided to pursue higher studies only after arriving in Australia for language training. “This is a future issue,” Aird said. “Not only will they lose number; they will lose diversity.”

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com