International student data is published monthly, giving the latest available data on students studying on a student visa. This visualisation allows selection of the current, as well as previous monthly and annual, international student monthly summaries.
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International student monthly summary
Use the report to explore different views of data on enrolments, commencements and student numbers by month, year, education sector, source country and state/territory.
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Key points
- In the YTD August 2026, 738,694 international students studied in Australia, an 8% decline on the same period in 2025.
- Many international students study more than one course in a reported year. Hence, in the YTD August 2026 there were 866,252 international student enrolments, a 9% decline in enrolments on the same period in 2025. The number of commencements (327,270) declined by 12%.
- The Higher Education sector had a small decline in enrolments (<1%), while all other sectors also showed declines, notably ELICOS (24%) and VET (19%).
- Overall, 56% of international students were from the following 5 student source countries: China (23% of international students), India (16%), Nepal (9%), Vietnam (4%) and Bangladesh (4%).
- The most popular Field of Education in Higher Education was Management and Commerce followed by Information Technology, while in VET it was Management and Commerce followed by Architecture and Building.
- In the YTD August 2026, the most popular Level of Study in Higher Education was Masters degree by coursework (43% of total) followed by Bachelors degree (41%), while in VET it was Diploma (33%) followed by Certificate III (24%).
Considerations for interpreting this data
- International student data is published in monthly year-to-date (YTD) and annual calendar year formats based on monthly snapshots of Provider Registration and International Student Management System (PRISMS). Snapshots are used to avoid slight variations in data across different extract dates as PRISMS is a live system and is constantly updated.
- Monthly YTD data for the current reporting year is available in the monthly summary (PDF) and the monthly YTD data tables.
- Student numbers is a count of individuals that have studied within the reference period on a student visa.
- Enrolment numbers is a count of a student's enrolment within the reference period. If a student does multiple courses during the reference period, the enrolments will each be counted.
- Further information is available in the explanatory notes for data relating to international students studying in Australia.
International Student Data for the year-to-date (YTD)
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