UK ELT: “We need to change what we do”

While the UK remains the largest English language teaching (ELT) destination by student numbers, the sector is forecasting another year of flat – if not declining – enrolment, with schools urged to collaborate and focus on the experiences offered to students.  

“We need to change what we do, and we can’t just be English language,” ES London director Niel Pama told delegates of The PIE Live Europe.  

“We must give the students opportunities to take the selfies and to experience it. And that’s what we see is successful. So, we are really being more tourist company than that English language school,” said Pama.  

Last year, the sector saw enrolment figures reach approximately 70% of pre-pandemic levels, according to English UK.  

This was 10% down on the previous year – which is regarded as the “new normal” since Covid – with enrolments expected to remain flat this year, said Jodie Gray, English UK chief executive.  

What’s more, the UK ELT market is dominated by junior learners who make up 60% of ELT students as compared to 60% of English language learners globally.  

Against this backdrop, language schools are diversifying their offerings to remain attractive to a reduced pool of students amid a global shortage of teachers, high costs and waning host families.  

“It’s the experiential side that becomes crucial,” said Lions Bay Ltd chief strategy officer Neil Harvey: “For years, we were the study travel industry, and we got a bit obsessed with study and forgot about the travel, but what people want is to travel. 

“If I were going back into a language school today, I’d pay the activities manager more than the director of studies,” he added. 

As well as activities and excursions, students are increasingly looking to pair English language learning with other academic opportunities, speakers told the conference.  

“We’re seeing an increase in demand from students from the Middle East who want something different,” said LILA* language school director Leanne Linacre. 

“They still want an element of English language, but students are very much looking for other things like coding and STEM,” added Linacre, highlighting the importance of anticipating market trends.  

Rising costs for providers and student accommodation are presenting further challenges for the sector: “We’re losing host families left, right and centre,” said Harvey, highlighting that 18% of 18–34-year-olds live at home in the UK, thus reducing spare room availability.   

If I were going back into a language school today, I’d pay the activities manager more than the director of studies

Neil Harvey, Lions Bay Ltd

And yet, Gray cautioned that 2023 ELT data should only be taken as a benchmark, with volatile government policy environments in Canada and Australia creating an unpredictable global landscape not revealed in the numbers.   

“Government policy, whatever country you’re in, has a negative effect on the market,” said Wimbledon School of English CEO Jane Dancaster, though she said there were “green shoots” of hope in that the UK’s reciprocal Youth Mobility Scheme may be extended to EU countries.  

“When polls on immigration are conducted in the UK, they show that in general the public don’t see students as immigrants. They don’t see students as part of the problem,  people coming and taking their jobs, so we shouldn’t give up on lobbying the government on student mobility.” added Dancaster.  

Widening the scheme to EU students would be a “game changer” for the ELT sector, said Gray, though the government has insisted that it has no plans for such a scheme, reiterating its position that there would be no return to freedom of movement, the customs union or the single market.   

“We are committed to resettling the relationship with the EU to improve the British people’s security, safety and prosperity. Our starting point will always be to act in Britain’s national interest,” a spokesperson told The PIE News on March 25. 

And yet, in a break from the previous Conservative government, the current administration has sent a welcoming message to international students and vowed not to treat them as “political footballs”. 

Despite Brexit, the UK still attracts 41% of European ELT students, as well as 42% of the global market share of English students from the Middle East, according to English UK.

Conversely, Asia and Latin America present glaring opportunities for growth, where only 9% and 7% of ELT students, respectively, choose UK language schools.  

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