Over 75,000 foreign language students arrived in 2015

Last year, foreign students attending English language courses at local specialised schools numbered 75,524, equivalent to a decrease of 2.6 per cent over 2014.

The majority of students attending English language courses in Malta came from Italy (23.8 per cent), Germany (13.7 per cent) and France (10.1 per cent). Together these accounted for 47.6 per cent of total student.

The largest amount of language students were aged 15 years or less, these students alone totalled 21,247, and accounted for 28.1 per cent of total student visits. Students aged 50 and over were in the minority and numbered 4,486. Female students outnumbered males, and accounted for 58.0 per cent of the entire student population.

July was the busiest month for English language specialised schools, with 15,812 arrivals, or 20.9 per cent of the annual total. This was followed by August and June with 16.5 and 11.3 per cent of total arrivals respectively. A similar pattern was also recorded in 2014. The percentage of students aged 15 or less increases substantially during the months of July and June.

The most popular course offered by specialised schools for English language is General English. This course alone accounted for 53,811 students (71.3 per cent) attending during 2015. This was followed by the Intensive English course, with 15.2 per cent of total students.

Foreign students attending English language courses amounted to 4.2 per cent of total incoming tourists during 2015. During the month of July, 206,626 foreigners visited Malta, out of these 7.7 per cent were English language students.

The majority of students (29.8 per cent) resided with a host family, an increase of 2.5 per cent over last year. Accommodation in hotels was chosen by 14,530 students, and increased by 3.4 percent over 2014.

Collectively foreign students enrolled in specialised schools for English language spent 238,481 weeks in Malta. The average duration per student stood at 3.2 weeks, and remained at par with the previous year. With an average of 15.9 weeks, students from Colombia recorded the highest average duration. These were followed by Libyan and Turkish students with an average of 11.9 and 7.8 weeks respectively.

In 2015, teaching staff in English language specialised schools numbered 1,444, and in the majority were females. Of these, most (44.4 per cent) were aged between 18 and 24. Female teaching personnel comprised 69.3 per cent of the total teaching staff. Non- teaching staff amounted to 752 of which 52.8 per cent were employed on a full-time basis.