There was just shy of 560 000 in-country as of February

That’s a thumping 26 per cent increase on 2022.

Students from China were down 4 per cent, although it is still the largest source market. Growth was driven by India (up 27 per cent) and Nepal (30 per cent higher to 52 000).

This might be as high as Nepal goes – its government is now only approving higher education students leaving to study abroad.

HE commencements from India doubled, to 24 000 – question will be, how many of them stay in higher education. As  Mahsood Shah and James Collins warned in CMM last month, there’s a problem with Indian students getting visas on the basis of university enrolment and then switching to low cost VET.