International Students in Australia

How many international students are studying in Australia?

Australia is a popular study destination with students from around the world wishing to gain a top-quality education. Each year new students take up courses in Australia and add to the already significant international student body around the country.

In 2010, 469,619 international students were studying in Australia on a student visa. Of these, there were 227,230 international students enrolled in the higher education sector, which represented a growth of 7.6% from 2009.

Which sectors are they studying in?

Most of the international students in Australia are studying in the higher education sector, followed by the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector and the English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) sector (see table below).

Sector Enrolments	2010
Higher education	227,230
VET	146,968
ELICOS	96,547
Schools	24,047
Other	31,118
Total in Australia	469,619

Which states are they studying in?

New South Wales and Victoria attract by far the biggest numbers of international students. New South Wales registered over 235,000 students hailing from overseas countries in 2009, whilst Victoria has slightly fewer than 200,000 international students. The other states and territories have smaller numbers of international students, and smaller numbers of students overall.

Where are the international students from?

The table below shows the international student enrolments for the top five nationalities for 2010, which contributed 55.6% of Australia’s enrolments in all sectors. China was the largest contributor to the higher education sector (35.5%), the schools sector (43.9%) and the ELICOS sector (33.5%), while India was the largest contributor to the VET sector (32.9%). China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia all recorded slight increases in student numbers from the 2009 figures. Significant growth was recorded in student numbers from some countries outside the top five, including Saudi Arabia, France and the Philippines.

Nationality	2010	Share of all nationalities %
China	126,313	26.9
India	68,758	14.6
Republic of Korea	25,909	5.5
Malaysia	21,451	4.6
Vietnam	18,920	4.0
Other	208,268	44.3
All nationalities	469,619	100

What broad field of study are they taking?

In 2010, the field of study with the highest number of enrolments in the higher education sector was management and commerce (51.6%), while in the VET sector management and commerce registered 42.6% of enrolments. The second largest field of study in the VET sector was food, hospitality and personal services, with 25.7% of enrolments.

The information in this article is sourced from the Australian Government’s Australian Education International 2010 international student enrolments data.