The first ELT growth since 2013 was seen this summer, according to new English UK figures.

Members of our Quarterly Intelligence Cohort (QUIC) initiative reported 214,851 student weeks in the third quarter of 2017, compared with 183,203 in a predecessor scheme in 2016. This represents a year-on-year rise of over 17 per cent.

Jodie Gray, English UK's head of market development, who oversees QUIC, said she was cautiously optimistic about the figures. "We are seeing early signs of a recovery in the market, and of course the big question is around whether this is solely driven by the exchange rate. We believe members may be innovating more, and taking advantage of destination promotion and better data to build a firm base for recovery, and we will continue to monitor this carefully."

QUIC's figures come from the 124 English UK member centres who joined the scheme when it replaced the long-standing core group in January. It provides an in-depth, quarterly analysis of the UK industry's source markets, from industry experts StudentMarketing, to its members within six weeks of each quarter's end, with a limited executive summary more widely available later. New members can join at the beginning of each year, for just £250.

This is the first time an analysis has been done comparing data given by centres which have had membership of both schemes. Ms Gray said this was part of an ongoing project to provide continually improving support for members with high-quality statistical insights, provided more quickly than the industry average.

Other insights in the executive summary for Q3 2017 are:

• Junior weeks rose by 18 per cent and adult weeks 17 per cent over Q3 2016
• The ratio of adults to junior student weeks was 70 per cent to 30 per cent
• 72 per cent of student weeks were booked via an agent or other commissionable source
• General English was the most popular course, at 88.6 per cent of weeks, followed by English for Academic Purposes at 8.1 per cent.
• Top 10 leading markets remained largely unchanged – with Italy in top place, followed by China, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Turkey – but China, Spain and France rose up the table.

View the QUIC market report Q3 2017 executive summary and find further insight into the UK ELT industry on our facts and figures page.