Study Group’s ELT division, Embassy English, has returned to growth after two years of weak performances, the organisation’s year-end report shows. The group is bullish about the year ahead after Q4 revenues swelled across all of its divisions in 2015, with a 19% rise in EBITDA overall.
EBITDA for the year reached £42.4m, up from £36.5m in 2014, along with 20% revenue growth to £307.5m, driven “in very large part” by new student enrolments, Study Group’s CEO, David Leigh, said.
“The market has been tough and we’ve had to in places put in different pricing, but actually we’re seeing pricing recover now”
Embassy began to pick up in the second half of FY15 ending in December, despite what Leigh called “particularly challenging” trading conditions in the UK ELT market.
He attributed the growth to the division’s new student and agent promises, including an agreed progression with a refund guarantee attached for students.
Heavy discounting of ELT courses also contributed to the growth, he said, but added that prices are on the rise again.
“The market has been tough and we’ve clearly had to in places put in different pricing from the pricing that the industry achieved before, but actually we’re seeing pricing recover now, and I think it’s as a result of having differentiated our proposition to both students and agents,” he said.
New student enrolments were up by nearly a quarter (23%) across the group’s pathway division.
There was particularly strong growth in new student enrolments at ISCs in Europe and the UK, reaching 28%, boosted by the first major intake at the University of Sheffield.
Leigh added that the largest numbers of students began their studies towards the end of the year, which means their impact on revenue will be seen in the 2016 figures – “which is what gives us this confidence about 2016 and the growth prospects for the organisation going forward”, he said.
“We’ve more or less kept margins flat whilst we’ve been growing, which we’re pretty pleased with, so we’ve seen an increase in profits and therefore an increase in things that we can invest back into the organisation in order to secure greater and greater growth,” he said.
Expansion of on-campus pathways is set to continue, Leigh said, especially in the US, where Study Group is seeing “the strongest pipeline of new partnership prospects” it has had over the three years that he has held the position.
He predicted that the group will announce “a couple” of new pathway partnerships in the US before the end of the year.
“I think the market there is very much appreciating more and more the value of pathway programmes as a means of accessing more and more international students, and so we’re seeing that reflected in our own pipeline,” he added.
