Spain is the UK's fourth largest ELT market, falling from second place in 2014. English UK figures show the UK has around 50 per cent of the market share.
Read on for highlights and insights about Spain from our 2018 Student Statistics report and other English UK sources, as part of our series on top sending markets.
How many students does Spain send to the UK, and for how long?
In 2017, 44,362 Spanish students studied in the UK, staying an average 2.7 weeks and making up just over nine per cent of total student numbers. In all, they accounted for almost 6.6 per cent (120,187) of student weeks.
There was an upturn in the Spanish ELT market in private sector centres in 2017, with student weeks rising by 3.2 per cent and student numbers by 11.2 per cent. (Student Statistics 2018)
Where do Spanish ELT students study?
The overwhelming majority of Spanish students head for private sector centres: just 1,151 studied in the state sector where it was the 6th most important market but students stayed an average of 5.1 weeks. In private sector ELT centres where Spain was the third most important sending market, 7.1 per cent of student weeks and 9.3 per cent of students were from Spain, accounting for 114,277 student weeks and 43,211 students.
(Student Statistics 2018)
Who are the Spanish ELT students?
Juniors are the most important element of the Spanish students market, as our QUIC reports demonstrate. (QUIC executive summary) Spain was in seventh place overall in Q2 2018, when it was the second most important junior market.
What's the English UK view of the Spanish ELT market?
Henry Tolley, Head of Business Development of LanguageCert which is sponsoring English UK's Madrid event in autumn 2018, is an enthusiast for the Spanish market.
"Spain is a market which centres should be developing more.
"In the past it was all about developing into new countries but the ones on the doorstep are our bread-and-butter. If you try to increase the Spanish market by ten per cent you're getting an extra four or five thousand students, whereas if you did the same in Colombia you'd spend a long time getting an extra 300. The Spanish population is 38m, so 44,000 students is still very small.
"It's worth remembering that Spain is all autonomous regions and is very much a school market, with the groups made up by agents. It's worth getting out there and getting to know more agents."
How is English UK helping to support members in the Spanish market?
English UK is organising a village at the Spanish ASEPROCE workshop in Madrid on 25 October, with a networking drinks safeguarding training for agents and school leaders and reception at the city's British Embassy the evening before, sponsored by LanguageCert.
There is a special price of €1,200 for English UK members - please quote English UK when registering. Participation includes up to 30 one-to-one agent meetings, networking at lunch and dinner, and one night's accommodation. All attending agents are accredited and most are ASEPROCE members.
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