The latest English UK figures show the growth experienced by the UK ELT market in summer 2017, continued into the final trading quarter of 2017.

A decrease in the junior market (student weeks down by 3.4 per cent) was off-set by a rise in adult student weeks. These were 1.5 per cent up on the final quarter of 2016 in the predecessor data scheme. The historical analysis, confirmed that in quarter four members of the Quarterly Intelligence Cohort (QUIC) initiative saw an overall year-on-year rise of 1.3 per cent in their student week data.

QUIC's figures come from the 122 English UK member centres who joined this optional quarterly student statistics group when it launched in January 2017. These QUIC members reported a total of 142,038 student weeks in this fourth quarter of 2017. 95 per cent of which were adult weeks and 69 per cent were booked through a commissionable source.

The leading source market for adult student weeks was Saudi Arabia (13,521), closely followed by China. China was also the biggest sender of junior student weeks (1,240), accounting for over 16 per cent of all junior student weeks. Other markets outside of Europe with notable junior student weeks in quarter four were Colombia and Thailand.

QUIC 2018 is currently open for English UK member centres to join. In return for just £250 per annum and submitting detailed data, these QUIC participants receive in-depth, quarterly analysis of the UK industry's source markets, from industry experts StudentMarketing, provided more quickly than the industry average. A limited executive summary is more widely available later.

QUIC Q4 2017: key findings

• The ratio of adults to junior student weeks was 95 per cent to 5 per cent (134,500 adult student weeks to 7,538 junior)
• 69 per cent of student weeks were booked via an agent or other commissionable source
• General English was the predominant course choice, at 87.7 per cent of weeks, followed by English for academic purposes at 8.6 per cent
• The third largest course type, business and professional English, accounted for just 1.7 per cent of student weeks.
• Saudi Arabia is the largest source market, followed closely by China, South Korea and Switzerland
• Switzerland rose up the table and represented the largest source market in Europe.

View the QUIC market report Q4 2017 executive summary and find further insight into the UK ELT industry on our facts and figures page.