Education export income, Financial Year 2021-22

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International education is worth $20.8* billion to the Australian economy.

There was $11.9 billion paid as Goods and Services and $8.9 billion paid as Tuition fees.

*In 2021-22, there was $4.3 billion paid as tuition fees from students studying outside Australia due to travel restrictions.

Commodity 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22
Iron Ore 102877 152974 133069
Coal 54620 39195 113952
Natural Gas 47524 30476 70503
Gold 24394 26104 23205
Education-related 37338 27554 20776
State 2021-22 2020-21 2019-20
NSW 7575 10031 13312
VIC 6472 8851 12709
QLD 2999 3985 5334
SA 1424 1702 2117
WA 1205 1634 2082
ACT 591 684 945
TAS 381 500 668
NT 131 167 170

Education export income by sector (A$ million)

Note: New Zealand students do not study on student visa and have no sector data.
  2019-20 2020-21 2021-22
Higher Education $25,269 $17,862 $13,502
Vocational Education and Training $8,041 $7,878 $6,098
Schools $1,317 $986 $583
English Language Intensive Courses for Overseas Students (ELICOS) $1,430 $372 $295
Non-award  $834 $140 $104
New Zealand $263 $192 $129
Ausaid/Defence $184 $124 $65
Total $37,338 $27,554 $20,776
Country 2019-20 2020-21 2021-22
China 10434 6109 4230
India 6542 5309 3729
Nepal 2954 2522 2002
Vietnam 1396 1170 958
Malaysia 1250 904 683
Indonesia 982 753 632
Colombia 849 756 580
Philippines 866 784 556
Pakistan 825 699 549
Korea, Republic of (South) 924 690 541
Rest of the world 10316 7858 6316

Considerations for interpreting this data

  • The figures in the tables above represent the data on international education exports released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in its International Trade in Services series.
  • The total export income generated by all international education activity includes spending by onshore students as well as earnings from other educational services and royalties. The ABS uses the term ‘education-related personal travel’ for this term.
  • Includes international students studying onshore on student visas only.
  • Export income does not include income generated by the operations of offshore campuses of Australian institutions.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics data