Slowdown in student mobility affects all ELT destinations
English UK's Q2 2025 student statistics suggest a slower than usual seasonal build-up to summer this year.
Q2 2025 statistics reflect the volatility of source markets
Tracking the pattern globally is challenging as few competitor destinations publish quarterly data like we do at English UK. Looking at the broader student mobility climate, Ivana Bartosik, International Education Director of our intelligence partner BONARD, said: "Across all major ELT destinations, Q2 2025 has seen a decline in student numbers."
This slowdown appears to be driven by several converging factors... "policy uncertainty including enrolment caps, visa restrictions, and changes in government administration and an economic downturn in key source markets." said Ivana.
Asian markets have been impacted by the trade war. Volatile exchange rates, economic slowdown and uncertainty have also affected source markets, reducing outbound student mobility.
Saudi Arabia remained the UK's top source country overall in Q2 2025
Saudi Arabia remained the UK's top source country overall; however, the downward trend observed in Q1 continued. The full report, which is exclusive to English UK's QUIC participants, shows Saudi Arabia was also the leading source market in six of the seven UK regions, with Türkiye remaining in top position for the London region.
Türkiye stands out as a top 5 source country in Q2 for adults and juniors
Türkiye was the second largest source market for adult students, after Saudi Arabia, and the third for juniors in Q2.
Varied performance across individual markets when compared with pre-pandemic years
Our 2025 Q2 QUIC results show varied performance across individual markets. Türkiye, Argentina, and Ukraine exceeded their 2019 volumes and Russia, China, and Italy had the lowest recovery rates.
Statistics show slowdown in recovery rate
Q2 student weeks were just 3% above those of Q1. Junior student weeks dropped by 25% on Q2 2024, while adult weeks were down 13%.
Recovery rates varied by age group, with the junior segment trailing at just 57% of 2019 volumes.
Q2 2025 at a glance
- 119.7k ELT student weeks: 85% adult and 15% junior
- Adult student weeks dropped 13% and juniors dropped 25% compared to Q2 2024
- Overall recovery fell to 68% of the Q2 2019 volume
- Top 5 adult source markets: Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Brazil, Japan, and South Korea
- Top 5 junior source markets: Italy, Spain, Türkiye, Mexico, and Germany
- 23% of bookings were direct, and 77% commissionable
- 79% were individual bookings, a ratio that has stayed consistent in recent years
- The top 20 markets sent 89% of all student weeks, up 1% on Q2 2024
- 143 teaching premises were open in Q2*, up 2% vs Q2 2024
n = 125 English UK member centres in the 2025 QUIC cohort (with 234 advertised teaching premises in Q2*)
> Download the QUIC Q2 2025 executive summary
The full data sets and detailed report are only available to QUIC participants. Members of QUIC can contact Roz McGill for the full report. If you missed out this year, remember to join the cohort for 2026.
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