Since the start of 2022, 173,020 student visas have been lodged to study in Australia.
In this key data update, we provide some insights on the number of student visas lodged to study in Australia from the 1st of January to the 31st of May. The data is regularly reported by the Department of Home Affairs, Australia.
Compared to pre-pandemic levels, this impressive figure represents 10.5% more than the number of visas lodged in the same period back in 2018 and only 2% less compared to 2019.
Looking at the distribution of student visas lodged by sector; more than 50% of student visas are for higher education programs, 30% are for VET programs and 12% are for English Language programs. This distribution is similar to the number reported in the same period before the pandemic started.
As expected, the performance of this metric has been different across sectors. Higher education visas are currently 6.5% below the same period in 2019. VET visas reported an increase of 7% and ELICOS an impressive increase of 22% in comparison to 2019. Unfortunately, visas lodged for Schools and Non-Awards programs are still significantly behind pre-pandemic levels.