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Latest data shows continued growth in international enrolments
The latest full-year enrolment data confirms there were 92,580 international students enrolled with New Zealand education providers in 2025. This is an increase of 11 percent from the same period in 2024 and 80 percent of the pre-COVID peak.
ENZ’s Acting Chief Executive, Dr Linda Sissons, says the results reflect steady progress across the sector driven by the sustained effort of education providers and enabled by ENZ’s brand and promotional activity.
ENZ’s recent Global Brand Health and Awareness Survey found that 22 percent of prospective students place New Zealand in their top three study destinations. This strengthening preference is consistent with the growth we are seeing in international student enrolments.
“In a highly competitive global market, New Zealand’s high-quality education providers, great student experience and strong graduate outcomes are the factors that most influence student choice,” says Dr Sissons.
Universities have seen a 14 percent increase to 38,025, significantly exceeding 2024 levels. School enrolments grew by 10 percent to 20,155.
International enrolments in our primary, intermediate and secondary schools remain a key point of difference for New Zealand, offering an early pathway into our education system.
Outside of universities and schools, recovery across subsectors has been more uneven, with institutes of technology and polytechnics progressing at different rates. This reflects varied recovery across subsectors and markets.
“We are regularly assessing priority markets so we can understand where demand is growing and can direct our effort and resources toward markets with the greatest opportunity to support sustainable growth.”
China and India remain the top two countries for international student enrolment, at 34 percent and 14 percent respectively, followed by Japan (9 percent), South Korea (4 percent), Sri Lanka (4 percent), Germany (3 percent), the United States of America (3 percent), Nepal (3 percent), and the Philippines (3 percent).
“Strong growth was seen in a small number of new markets including Sri Lanka and Nepal. These markets have been factored into our market prioritisation and investment framework for 2026/27,” says Dr Sissons.
International students are studying across all regions of New Zealand. Auckland remains the largest centre, hosting around 55 percent of international students, followed by Canterbury and Waikato.
“Canterbury (10 percent), Auckland (14 percent) and Waikato (19 percent) experienced the strongest growth,” says Dr Sissons.
“Growth across regions reflects a sector that is rebuilding at pace and contributing to our local communities and economy.”
ENZ plays a key role in supporting the sector by providing market intelligence and insights to help providers understand trends in demand and make informed decisions in an increasingly competitive global market.
A webinar for interested stakeholders is being held at 12:30pm (NZT) on 19 May where ENZ’s Director of Insights and Performance, Marie Clark, will present the numbers and provide insights into each subsector and market.
Register for the webinar: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/db7275ad-de60-42ad-bb00-c0d46b7c2804@7fab8d82-1c85-4170-acbf-74e098fcca29.
Full enrolment data is available on ENZ’s Tableau public account as interactive dashboards and data tables.
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Contracting support to grow international education in schools
The support for schools was signalled in the International Education Going for Growth Plan and announced by Education Minister Erica Stanford at the SIEBA hui in mid-May.
ENZ will run a tender to find an organisation to help schools establish processes to enrol international students and meet their regulatory obligations. We will also hold and manage the contract and report progress to the Minister on a quarterly basis.
The initiative will help schools lift capability at every stage of the international student journey, providing practical tools to attract and care for international students, and enabling sustainable growth across the system.
An independent organisation will deliver this work, recognising that sector expertise and established networks are key to building school capability and capacity.
All schools can access the support, including those that do not currently enrol international fee-paying students. The intent is to lift capability across the schooling sector, not just in schools with established international recruitment programmes.
ENZ will finalise the scope and requirements of the tender before applications open in late June. The tender will be published on the Government Electronic Tender Service (GETS).
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- Trends in the German High School Market
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Global demand for English language learning: A market still shifting
Globally, more than one million students undertook English language study across the major destinations in 2024, generating around 7.6 million student weeks.
That’s a significant rebound from the pandemic years, but still well below 2019 levels, when the sector reached over 1.3 million students generating more than 10 million student weeks. The expectation was that 2024 would continue the strong momentum seen in 2022 and 2023. Instead, growth slowed.
As Ivana outlined, this wasn’t due to a drop in interest in learning English. Demand remains strong. What’s changed is the environment around it.
Across many of the major destinations, governments introduced tighter visa settings, enrolment caps and more restrictive policies. At the same time, students and families have been dealing with rising costs, weaker currencies and increased uncertainty. The result is a more constrained and more selective market. In 2024, global student numbers declined by around 6 percent and student weeks by 11 percent compared with the previous year.The presentation also highlighted that the shape of demand is changing.
Adult learners, once a core part of the sector, are declining across many destinations. In their place, younger learners are entering earlier, often for shorter stays. The average age of students’ first study abroad experience has dropped from around 15–16 years pre pandemic to closer to 12–13 today.
At the same time, traditional patterns of mobility are changing. More students are choosing shorter, more flexible experiences. Some are staying closer to home, supported by the growth of in country options and transnational education offers.
There’s also growing competition from newer destinations. Markets such as the Philippines and Dubai are expanding quickly, offering alternatives that can be closer to home or more affordable for students.
Taken together, these shifts point to a sector that is no longer simply rebounding, but actively reshaping. As Ivana noted during the session, the key driver is no longer just student demand, it is the interaction between demand, policy settings and economic conditions.
Download a copy of the report or view the presentation on our IntelliLab website.
Webinar on the global demand for English language provision | IntelliLab
