VCs reporting better 2020 financials than expected keep saying this year will be not-great. Here’s  a reason why

Year to date international student commencements in February were 30 768, down from 48 429 last year and 57 913 in ’19. VET isn’t as bad, 36 227 this year, compared to 39 713 in ’20.

As for ELICOS it’s as awful as the industry has warned. YTD commencements in February 2020 were 19 462 (down 130 on ’19) – this February it was 6102.

All commencements from China were down 30 per cent (to 19 124). HE starts were 22 per cent lower (12,454). VET dropped a couple of hundred, (to 2340) and ELICOS was 40 per cent lower (at 1334).

As to students from India – YTD higher education commencements for February were 4343, down from 8955 last year. But VET went up, 8107 this year compared to 7092 last. As  CMM international education correspondent Dirk Mulder suggested last year, this may be due to Indian students moving from higher education to VET (CMM June 15).