The Federation of English Language Teaching Organisation (FELTOM) said the figures “confirm the growth of the mature student segment” as falls in the junior sector gave way to increases in students aged between 18-25.

Total students studying an English language course in 2013 totalled 73,922: an 8.4% fall from 2012’s 81,911. Student weeks however increased by 3.3% to a total of 233,834.

This meant that an average duration of study per student was just over 3 weeks, up by 0.3 of a week since 2012.

Europe continues to be the largest source market for the country with 90% of students coming from the continent, led by Italy, Russia and Germany, which combined accounted for 47.6% of total students.

In terms of student weeks, Koreans had the highest average duration followed by students from Libya and Turkey.

“The significant investment in English teaching undertaken by central European government over the past years also had an effect”

FELTOM says that economic situations in traditionally important markets Italy and Spain, “continues to have a bearing on Malta’s TEFL sector”.

“The significant investment in English teaching undertaken by central European government over the past years also had an effect as less central European students are now travelling to learn English,” the association said in a statement.

Despite the fall in numbers, ELT students continue to make up a significant portion of foreign visitors to the island. In fact, for some nationalities, students dominate the demographic, such as for South Koreans – 43.8% of all visitors to Malta are in fact studying English.

In 2013, ELT students accounted for 4.6% of the some 1 million visiting foreign nationals. In July the share jumped to 10.7%.

The NSO statistics also reveal that there were 43 English language teaching schools in operation in 2013; all but one contributed data to the survey.

Twenty of the largest schools are a member of FELTOM; its members account for 90% of the ELT market. The organisation is currently undergoing a third party audit to overhaul its accreditation system to launch new regulations at the first of next year.

Top 3 student markets by student weeks (not enrolments)

1. Russian
2. Italy
3. Germany