New figures show small UK ELT decline in summer 2025

Student volume declined by 12% in the peak months of 2025 compared to the previous year, according to English UK's quarterly reporting scheme.

The scheme - QUIC - which includes around 40% of English UK member centres, showed a 9% decline in junior student weeks and a 15% drop for adults. There were pockets of growth in Türkiye, Argentina, and Mexico, which outperformed their 2019 sending volumes. Junior weeks made up a record 46% of the total, due to a sharper decline in adult bookings.

ELT a maturing and disrupted market

"The summer was not as strong as last year's but overall, the UK is doing better than some major competitor markets," said Roz McGill, English UK's Market Development and Insights Manager. "ELT is a maturing market and disrupted by factors including better teaching of English in school, cost of living issues, international politics, visa regime changes and of course the rise of AI.

"Our market intelligence is intended to support our members navigate trading challenges, and we are also about to run a webinar on ELT in transition, with a panel session and plenty of opportunities for questions and discussions."

UK still the world's most popular ELT destination

Roz noted that the UK is still the most popular destination for ELT students and said that in a recent market barometer survey, just over half of QUIC participants thought that 2026 was more likely to show stable trading rather than marked decline.

Stabilisation and modest growth emerging

Ivana Bartosik, International Education Director of BONARD, which produces English UK's statistics, commented: "The UK ELT sector recorded a 12% decline in early Q3, which is notably lower than earlier forecasts and milder than the downturns reported in other policy-affected destinations such as Australia, Canada and the United States.

"As the QUIC Q3 cohort typically represents more than half of the English UK membership's total student week volume, the results indicate a controlled downturn within a mature market, rather than a sharp decline. While challenges in key source markets persist, forecast indicators suggest that early signs for 2026 show stabilisation and modest growth emerging when compared with 2025."

QUIC Q3 topline facts and figures

• With 262,079 student weeks, Q3 was the busiest quarter of the year

• The top 10 markets supplied 72% of student weeks, an identical proportion to Q3 2024

• Top five adult source markets: Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Italy, Japan, and Brazil

• Top five junior source markets: Italy, Türkiye, China, Spain and Argentina

• Juniors were a record 46% of the total, thanks to a sharper decline in adult student weeks

• Year-on-year summer volume declined by 12%. Adult student weeks dropped by 15%, and juniors by 9%

• Overall recovery dipped to 65% of the Q3 2019 volume, lower than Q1 (71%) and Q2 (68%) 2025

• Of the top 25 individual source markets, only Türkiye, Argentina, and Mexico outperformed their 2019 sending volumes, while Russia, China, and Thailand recorded the lowest recovery rates.

n = 125 English UK member centres (with 234 advertised teaching premises) in the 2025 QUIC cohort

We're grateful to all our QUIC participants for committing their time and resources to submit quarterly data.

> Register for the webinar: UK ELT in transition – opportunities in a changing landscape
Find out more and ask questions at our member seminar at 11:00 on Friday 12 December.

> Download the QUIC Q3 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 ahead of the Q1 submission deadline in April.