The Market Monitor Digest (week 37/2025)
We're glad to bring you the key highlights from this week’s industry news. Thanks to the research from the BONARD Market Monitor team, you’re always in step with the latest market trends.
International Education
Global: Global ELT volumes dipped in 2024
By ICEF Monitor, Sep 06, 2025
Global ELT enrolments in the top eight English language learning destinations declined in 2024, in large due to more restrictive visa settings and growing concerns around affordability. BONARD's Global ELT Annual Report 2025, that the ELT sector was sitting at 73% of its pre-pandemic enrolment, and 75% of 2019's student weeks, for 2024.
Australia: Green light for job cuts at UTS after order to pause restructure lifted
By The Guardian, Sep 08, 2025
The University of Technology Sydney will release its restructure proposal after SafeWork NSW lifted its order that the institution must pause job cuts over the risk of “serious and imminent risk of psychological harm” to staff.
UK: ‘Dynamic pricing’: overseas students offered thousands off fees
By Times Higher Education, Sep 08, 2025
UK universities are adopting dynamic pricing models for international students, offering substantial discounts on tuition fees in response to falling overseas demand and heightened global competition. The move has sparked debate over transparency, fairness, and whether such tactics undermine the perceived value of British higher education.
South Korea: Gachon University launches its own international college to expand programs for foreign students
By Korea JoongAng Daily, Sep 09, 2025
Gachon University used to operate the Department of Global Liberal Arts and the Department of Korean Studies for its international student-only undergraduate programs, but added six more departments to create the International College in December 2024, accepting its inaugural students in spring 2025.
US: Harvard wins legal battle over Trump administration
By The PIE News, Sep 09, 2025
Harvard has won a key legal victory over the Trump administration, restoring USD $2.2bn in federal research grants frozen by the US government. As well as unfreezing the funding, Burroughs granted Harvard’s request for a permanent injunction preventing the administration from withholding any future grants to Harvard “in retaliation for the exercise of its first amendment rights”.
Australia: Poaching of students ‘costing universities hundreds of millions’
By Times Higher Education, Sep 10, 2025
A new analysis by consultancy Studymove estimates that onshore student “poaching”—where students switch between providers after arriving in Australia—costs universities over A$173 million annually. The practice, driven by migration agents and short-term financial incentives, has raised concerns about sector integrity and sustainability.
France: Record numbers of international students for France in 2024/25
By Study Travel, Sep 10, 2025
There were more than 430,000 international students in France in the 2024/25 academic year, according to figures released by Campus France, a three per cent increase compared with the previous year with growth across all types of educational institution.
Finland: Relief as government rejects further cuts to HE budget
By University World News, Sep 11, 2025
To the relief of higher education stakeholders in Finland, major cuts to university funding contained in a national budget proposal made by Minister of Finance Riikka Purra have been rejected by the Finnish government. In early August Purra proposed a 2026 budget that would, she claimed, cut public spending by 1 billion euros.
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