Market insights from the British Council China

Jazreel Goh, Director of Education & Sports for British Council China, has been speaking to agents in China about the impact of Covid-19 on international student mobility.

In a statement sent to English UK Goh said: "Based on informal discussions with agents and social monitoring, the disruption from Covid-19 on international mobility will have a huge impact on summer school groups from China. Over 90% of agents we spoke to indicated that there would be no summer school groups travelling to the UK this year. In addition, the Chinese Government is still discouraging any overseas travel and international flights are still not available to most destinations.

"Most importantly, until parents feel it is safe enough for their children to travel, we do not think that many will be making plans for summer schools in the UK. Unless the situation improves very soon - we predict that summer school business from China will be very low to zero this year. This will probably also include students for pre-sessional English."

The British Council have also produced a short video on market sentiments and Chinese students intentions re: overseas studies. While it focuses on the Higher Education in the UK, the findings are still interesting and relevant to the UK ELT sector.