The English UK QUIC scheme is designed to track dynamic and seasonal trends in the UK ELT sector, and this year has reached a record participation of 126 centres, representing 41 per cent of association membership. These schools delivered 116,397 student weeks in the first quarter of 2025, English UK.
2025 Q1 vs previous years: Among centres that have reported data in previous years, there was a 12 per cent decrease in student weeks compared with Q1 2024.
The junior segment was more resilient, declining by five per cent compared with 2024 Q1, which represented an 85 per cent recovery against 2019 Q1 levels. Adult weeks, meanwhile, dropped by 13 per cent year-on-year and were at 69 per cent of 2019 volumes.
Q1 in 2019, 2024 and 2025. Source of graphics - English UK/Bonard.
The Q1 January-to-March period is traditionally dominated by older students, and adults accounted for 87 per cent of weeks delivered, consistent with previous years.
Source markets: Saudi Arabia was the top source market in Q1, despite a decrease of 3,792 weeks, followed by Türkiye, which had the most significant growth at 2,578 weeks. Italy - which increased for the second consecutive quarter and was the only other growth market in the top 10 - Brazil and Japan completed the top five.
The top five accounted for 69 per cent of all student weeks, highlighting “the sector’s continued reliance on a relatively small group of key source countries during the first quarter”, English UK said.
In the junior segment, the top five source countries were Italy, Spain, Argentina, Brazil and Peru.
The impact of the government’s decision to remove visa-free entry for Colombians in November 2024 was evident in the 2025 Q1 data, with a decrease of almost one third (-1,104 weeks) compared with 2024 Q1.
Recruitment channels: Agents accounted for 76 per cent of student weeks in 2025 Q1, which was a slightly higher ratio than the same period of the previous year. Individuals represented 80 per cent of Q1 2025 bookings, which was consistent with the previous year and typical pre-pandemic levels.
Programme type: General English accounted for 91 per cent of adult student weeks, followed by English for Academic Purposes (six), while for juniors 77 per cent of weeks were on General English courses, followed by winter camps (21). The authors noted that General English declined for juniors, but all other course types increase compared with the previous year.
Agents accounted for 76 per cent of student weeks in 2025 Q1.
The slowdown at the start of 2025 was discussed by a panel of industry stakeholders at the recent English UK Annual Conference.
English UK has also recently released a position paper to government with six recommendations of "easily deliverable" measures that would support the sector, and has welcomed the recent announcement that the UK will work towards a youth mobility scheme with the EU, which was one of its main asks.
Click here to access the Executive Summary of the English UK QUIC 2025 Q1 report, which is produced by the association’s research partner Bonard.
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