The end of the fiscal year is upon us and as usual, it has been very busy at English Australia. A highlight of the past month has been the opportunity to meet with many of you face-to-face at the Branch meeting/member forums across the country. The dust is now settling on the transition of the new government. English Australia will be engaging with new Ministers in the coming month to ensure our sector's values and position are understood. High on the agenda will be visa processing, which we understand has been a real issue for many members.
Visa processing issues
Thank you for expressing your concerns to English Australia about visas. I want to assure members that I have been voicing your concerns and highlighting the issues faced with visa processing times, grant rates, and GTE assessments. I tabled these concerns at the recent Education Visa Consultative Committee (EVCC). DHA has committed more resources toward visa processing and has provided an undertaking to review the application of GTE. In the short term, we will be working on some additional resources to support the assessment of ELICOS visa applications.
The positive news is that Independent ELICOS visas are over 11 times stronger than last year, however, the grant rate has certainly dropped and this needs to be urgently addressed. Please look out for more detailed data on the YTD student visa data in our monthly market report that will be distributed shortly.
June Roadshow/Branch Meetings
Thank you to everyone that has participated in the Branch meetings held in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane this month. These meetings have been really useful forums to provide you with updates on the work being undertaken via our advocacy, professional development program, and market intelligence initiatives. I've also appreciated hearing from you on issues related to teacher shortages, visas, etc, but also the encouraging signs of recovery. The insights from the forums will be used to inform our future priorities that will be discussed at the English Australia Board meeting in August.
Annual ELICOS Market Report
The Annual ELICOS market report will be released in the coming weeks and the report will be provided to all of the 152 colleges that participated in this critical annual survey. I've been pleased to be able to share a few highlights and sneak peeks of the data at the member forums. I will be hosting a webinar to release the full results with my colleagues from Bonard. The event date and registration details will be confirmed shortly.
Guide to Good Practice in Online ELICOS Delivery
We have received excellent feedback on our recently released Guide to Good Practice in Online ELICOS Delivery, with many praising it as being practical, clear, simple, and easy to understand. We have had over 2,000 downloads already since its launch, so if you have not already done so, please view it online here.
English Language Barometer 2022 - update
This survey has been slightly delayed due to some technical issues; however, it will be opening soon, and the survey period will be extended until the end of September to compensate for the delay. If you have not already done so, please register and participate in this free survey which provides colleges with critical insight into how to improve the international student experience.
English Australia 2022 Conference Registrations Now Open
With nominations for our 20th Annual Awards closing at 11:59pm tonight (30th June), and as per our newsletter, it is time to register for our 2022 Virtual Conference which will run from 12th-16th September. As a reminder, English Australia is providing free conference attendance for all members to provide the greatest opportunity for professional development at this critical time with many teachers returning to the sector.
Industry events – ITECA, ACBC, and UECA
It was my pleasure to participate in several industry events over the past month starting with the ITECA Annual Conference. The ITECA International Education Symposium was held on the 1st of June on the Gold Coast with a great lineup of industry and government speakers. The Australia China Business Council held their annual education symposium on the 9th of June in Sydney where I presented on a panel with colleagues from NEAS and UECA. Finally, UECA held a national PD fest day on Saturday the 18th of June with over 100 participants attending f2f across all five locations. I was delighted to be able to be part of the program.
ICEF ANZA
It was wonderful to be part of the ICEF ANZA hybrid event in person at the Adelaide Convention Centre this month. It was great to profile English Australia members with education agents and partners from around the world and participate in a couple of panel presentations. The event saw a record 491 attendees, which is a strong validation of the sector's appetite to work together and drive the recovery. Well done to the ICEF team for running this successful event, which is off to Perth in 2023.
Innovation Funds update
30 June is an important date for both the Innovation Fund 2021 and Innovation Development Fund 2021-22.
The Innovation Fund 2021 has now come to a close with grantees busy submitting their final reports and English Australia combining into the final program report for the Department of Education. From the feedback provided by grantees in these final reports, it is clear that the fund has made a significant impact across those participating providers.
The Innovation Development Fund 2021-22 grantees are in the midst of the mid-point reporting phase of their program. It is at this point that grantees are asked to reconcile their expenditure to 30 June and submit a committed plan for expenditure from 1 July 2022 through 30 November 2022. These reports are due on 15 July with English Australia then assessing these submissions to ensure all expenditure is within the program guidelines.
As always, I am available should you wish to raise any issues with me