Ireland's ELT sector
expecting mixed fortunes in 2025

The first report, covering the January-to-June 2025 period, was launched at the association’s Annual Conference earlier this month, and marks “a new commitment by English Education Ireland to more frequent, data-led reporting to support planning, advocacy, and decision-making across the sector” in a fast-changing landscape.

Headline findings: The 51 member schools of EEI participating in the research hosted 60,402 international students in the first half of 2025.

A total of 274,328 student weeks were delivered, at an average stay of 4.3 weeks.

_{Average course duration trends in H1 2025 for EEI. Source - EEI/Bonard.}

2025 vs 2024: The H1 report by EEI does not cover the peak summer months of July and August, but EEI said early feedback from member schools suggest that numbers are trending below expectations.

For the year of 2025 as a whole, 35 per cent of member schools anticipate a moderate decrease in bookings, while nine per cent are eyeing a significant decline of more than 20 per cent.

Thirty-eight per cent are expecting stable numbers compared with 2024. Only 16 per cent of the schools surveyed are forecasting growth in 2025.

EEI schools hosted 128,761 international students in 2024, which was a record year for the sector. As previously reported, Ireland was the only major ELT destination where both student numbers and student weeks were above pre-pandemic levels in 2024.

“This mid-year data provides important early signals for the full-year outlook,” said Lorcan O'Connor Lloyd , CEO of English Education Ireland. “While Ireland’s reputation as a safe, high-quality destination remains strong, it’s clear the sector is facing renewed pressures – particularly around access and affordability for non-EU students.”

Student type: The research found that ministay programmes accounted for around half of all enrolments (49 per cent), while regular junior programmes constituted nine per cent, and high school programmes represented one per cent.

However, adult students represented 82 per cent of student weeks, with an average stay of 9.0 weeks.

Overall, 57 per cent of students came in groups in the first half of the year, the research showed.

Source regions and markets: Western Europe accounted for 72 per cent of students enrolled but had the shortest average stay of all regions at 1.8 weeks, while Latin America provided 18 per cent of students at an average stay of 13.2 weeks.

The top source countries by student numbers were Italy, Spain, Brazil, Austria and France.

In the junior segment, Italy was comfortably the largest sender country with 19,093 students, followed by Spain (9,246), Austria (3,468), France (991) and Germany (518). Mexico, with 365 students, was the largest non-EU source market of juniors.

For adults, Brazil provided the most students at 5,654, while Italy (2,679), France (2,453), Spain (2,317) and Mexico (1,907) completed the top five.

_{The top ten source markets in H1 2025 for EEI schools. Source - EEI/Bonard.}

Recruitment channels: Almost three-quarters of students (74 per cent) were sourced through agents, EEI said.

Challenges: The major challenges identified by schools include visa denials, cited by 51 per cent of those surveyed, as well as local competition (49), international competition (44), regulatory burden (39), and external disruptions such as inflation and weather (32).

EEI said that it would continue its engagement with policymakers on immigration and visa reform, while working with members to strengthen Ireland’s visibility and competitiveness.

“We’re grateful to the 51 member schools who contributed to this important research,” Lorcan added. “This kind of robust data is essential to making our case to government and to ensuring a sustainable future for Ireland’s English language education sector.”

_{Lorcan O'Connor Lloyd, CEO of EEI.}

Previously known as MEI, English Education Ireland is the largest national association of ELT schools in Ireland with more than 60 members, is a member of Gaela - Global Alliance of Education & Language Associations – of which Lorcan is one of the current Co-Convenors – and is a two-time winner of the ST Star School Association category of the StudyTravel Star Awards.